In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds think Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) is a good investment right now. We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research on a given stock. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks among hedge fund investors have historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk attributes. It’s not surprising given that hedge funds have access to better information and more resources to predict the winners in the stock market.
Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) was in 19 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 22. Our calculations also showed that KRNY isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).
To the average investor there are many signals stock market investors employ to analyze their stock investments. A duo of the most under-the-radar signals are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the market by a significant amount (see the details here). Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 185.4% since March 2017 (through August 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 79 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website.
Robert Atchinson of Adage Capital Management
Keeping this in mind we’re going to go over the key hedge fund action surrounding Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY).
Do Hedge Funds Think KRNY Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of June, a total of 19 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 12% from the first quarter of 2020. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards KRNY over the last 24 quarters. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY), which was worth $57.6 million at the end of the second quarter. On the second spot was Arrowstreet Capital which amassed $13.9 million worth of shares. Driehaus Capital, Adage Capital Management, and Millennium Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position MFP Investors allocated the biggest weight to Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY), around 0.25% of its 13F portfolio. Driehaus Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.18 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to KRNY.
As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Pinz Capital, managed by Matthew L Pinz, initiated the most outsized position in Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY). Pinz Capital had $0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Resolute Forest Products Inc (NYSE:RFP), Zogenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZGNX), Standard Motor Products, Inc. (NYSE:SMP), Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO), Banco Macro SA (NYSE:BMA), Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AMPH), and Suburban Propane Partners LP (NYSE:SPH). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble KRNY’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RFP | 15 | 460709 | -1 |
| ZGNX | 28 | 345660 | 7 |
| SMP | 14 | 106366 | -1 |
| VIVO | 13 | 140278 | -3 |
| BMA | 6 | 35375 | -2 |
| AMPH | 11 | 12809 | 2 |
| SPH | 3 | 6821 | 1 |
| Average | 12.9 | 158288 | 0.4 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 12.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $158 million. That figure was $128 million in KRNY’s case. Zogenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZGNX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Suburban Propane Partners LP (NYSE:SPH) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for KRNY is 64.9. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 24% in 2021 through October 22nd and still beat the market by 1.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on KRNY as the stock returned 11.2% since the end of Q2 (through 10/22) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Follow Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
