Hedge Funds Are Dumping First Horizon National Corporation (FHN)

First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN) investors should pay attention to a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months.

To the average investor, there are plenty of methods investors can use to monitor stocks. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can beat the S&P 500 by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are lots of reasons for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a look at the recent action regarding First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN).

Hedge fund activity in First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN)

At Q1’s end, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -15% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Dreman Value Management, managed by David Dreman, holds the largest position in First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN). Dreman Value Management has a $30.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.8% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Richard Chilton of Chilton Investment Company, with a $30 million position; 0.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Seeing as First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN) has experienced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there were a few hedgies who sold off their entire stakes heading into Q2. Interestingly, Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital dropped the biggest stake of all the hedgies we monitor, worth about $53.8 million in stock.. D. E. Shaw’s fund, D E Shaw, also sold off its stock, about $1.2 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds heading into Q2.

Insider trading activity in First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN)

Insider buying is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN). These stocks are Bank Of The Ozarks Inc (NASDAQ:OZRK), Trustmark Corp (NASDAQ:TRMK), F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB), EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER), and Hancock Holding Company (NASDAQ:HBHC). This group of stocks belong to the regional – southeast banks industry and their market caps are closest to FHN’s market cap.

With the returns shown by our strategies, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN) is an important part of this process.

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