The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We have processed the filings of the more than 700 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their September 30 holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.
Is Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK) undervalued? The smart money is buying. The number of bullish hedge fund bets went up by 6 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that NFBK 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.
At the moment there are a large number of indicators market participants use to appraise publicly traded companies. A duo of the most useful indicators are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see the details here).
David Harding of Winton Capital Management
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 view the fresh hedge fund action regarding Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK).
Hedge fund activity in Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK)
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 300% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 3 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in NFBK a year ago. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK), which was worth $37.4 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Millennium Management which amassed $1.2 million worth of shares. Winton Capital Management, Paloma Partners, and Citadel Investment Group 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 Renaissance Technologies allocated the biggest weight to Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK), around 0.03% of its 13F portfolio. Winton Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.01 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to NFBK.
Now, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, initiated the biggest position in Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK). Millennium Management had $1.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Harding’s Winton Capital Management also made a $0.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Donald Sussman’s Paloma Partners, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A (NYSE:BLX), TrustCo Bank Corp NY (NASDAQ:TRST), Wabash National Corporation (NYSE:WNC), and Opus Bank (NASDAQ:OPB). This group of stocks’ market valuations match NFBK’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BLX | 1 | 6635 | 0 |
| TRST | 11 | 43376 | -1 |
| WNC | 16 | 58825 | 1 |
| OPB | 8 | 127185 | -1 |
| Average | 9 | 59005 | -0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $59 million. That figure was $41 million in NFBK’s case. Wabash National Corporation (NYSE:WNC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A (NYSE:BLX) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and 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 NFBK wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); NFBK investors were disappointed as the stock returned 5.9% during the first two months of the fourth quarter 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 70 percent of these stocks already outperformed the market in Q4.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
