The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge fund investors experienced strong gains on the back of a strong market performance, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain the desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP).
Is Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP) a buy right now? Prominent investors are buying. The number of long hedge fund positions advanced by 2 recently. Our calculations also showed that IBCP isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
Today there are a large number of methods shareholders use to grade publicly traded companies. Two of the best methods are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a superb margin (see the details here).
Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We also rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. We’re going to review the latest hedge fund action encompassing Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP).
Hedge fund activity in Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP)
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2019, a total of 13 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 18% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 10 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in IBCP a year ago. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies has the most valuable position in Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP), worth close to $21.6 million, corresponding to less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $7.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining members of the smart money with similar optimism consist of Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Algert Coldiron Investors allocated the biggest weight to Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP), around 0.09% of its 13F portfolio. Ancora Advisors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.04 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to IBCP.
As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Paloma Partners, managed by Donald Sussman, assembled the biggest position in Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP). Paloma Partners had $0.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace also initiated a $0.1 million position during the quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX), SilverCrest Metals Inc. (NYSE:SILV), RISE Education Cayman Ltd (NASDAQ:REDU), and Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. (NYSE:TOO). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble IBCP’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AKRX | 15 | 83377 | 1 |
| SILV | 3 | 15391 | 1 |
| REDU | 4 | 5559 | -2 |
| TOO | 8 | 2440 | 2 |
| Average | 7.5 | 26692 | 0.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 7.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $27 million. That figure was $50 million in IBCP’s case. Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand SilverCrest Metals Inc. (NYSE:SILV) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. Unfortunately IBCP wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on IBCP were disappointed as the stock returned 5.7% during the fourth quarter (through the end of November) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
