Hedge Funds Are Betting On EverBank Financial Corp (EVER): IBERIABANK Corporation (IBKC), BancorpSouth, Inc. (BXS)

EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER) was in 12 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. EVER investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with EVER holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are seen as unimportant, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the top tier of this club, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by watching their top investments, we have discovered a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outperformed the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see the details here).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. There are plenty of stimuli for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a look at the recent action encompassing EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER).

How have hedgies been trading EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 20% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Sageview Capital, managed by Edward Gilhuly and Scott Stuart, holds the largest position in EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER). Sageview Capital has a $193 million position in the stock, comprising 67.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Steven B. Klinsky of New Mountain Capital, with a $130 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Tom Brown’s Second Curve Capital, Drew Cupps’s Cupps Capital Management and Charles Davidson’s Wexford Capital.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers have jumped into EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER) headfirst. Cupps Capital Management, managed by Drew Cupps, assembled the most outsized position in EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER). Cupps Capital Management had 4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new EVER investors: Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp and Mike Vranos’s Ellington.

How are insiders trading EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time frame, EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER). These stocks are IBERIABANK Corporation (NASDAQ:IBKC), BancorpSouth, Inc. (NYSE:BXS), Bank Of The Ozarks Inc (NASDAQ:OZRK), Trustmark Corp (NASDAQ:TRMK), and F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB). This group of stocks belong to the regional – southeast banks industry and their market caps are similar to EVER’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by the aforementioned studies, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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