Hedge Funds Are Betting On Flushing Financial Corporation (FFIC)

Is Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC) a buy here? The best stock pickers are turning bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions inched up by 1 lately.

In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of indicators investors can use to analyze Mr. Market. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can outpace the market by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the financial markets. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the recent action regarding Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC).

What have hedge funds been doing with Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 20% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the most valuable position in Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC), worth close to $6.4 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On GAMCO Investors’s heels is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $2 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Irving Kahn’s Kahn Brothers, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, assembled the most outsized position in Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC). Two Sigma Advisors had 0.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.

How have insiders been trading Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC). These stocks are Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRKL), Banner Corporation (NASDAQ:BANR), BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:BOFI), Roma Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ROMA), and Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM). This group of stocks belong to the savings & loans industry and their market caps match FFIC’s market cap.

With the returns shown by our research, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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