Hedge Funds Seen Losing Interest in These Five Stocks

Chubb Ltd (NYSE:CB)

 – Investors with long positions (as of March 31) : 40

– Aggregate value of Investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $1.41 billion

Chubb Ltd (NYSE:CB) was formed after ACE Limited completed its acquisition of Chubb in January this year. Since a lot of hedge funds covered by us engage in merger arbitrage, it is not surprising that the ownership of Chubb Ltd (NYSE:CB) among hedge funds has seen a decline after the merger was completed. The number of funds long the stock declined by 10 and the aggregate value of their holdings in it fell by 43.2% during the first quarter. Since merger, Chubb Ltd (NYSE:CB)’s stock has appreciated by 8% and most analysts believe that it will continue its bull run. On May 12, analysts at Deutsche Bank reiterated their ‘Hold’ rating on the stock, but boosted their price target on it to $116 from $110. Chubb Ltd recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.69 per share, which based on its current stock price represents an annual yield of 2.19%.

Citizens Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CFG)

 –Investors with long positions (as of March 31) : 51

– Aggregate value of Investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $1.25 billion

Moving on, the ownership of Citizens Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CFG) among funds covered by Insider Monkey fell by 16 and the aggregate value of their holdings in the company declined by 42.2%. The bank holding company has lost 14% of its market capitalization so far in 2016 and till recently its shares were trading below their IPO price of $21.50. The decline that the stock has seen this year has helped push its annual dividend yield to over 2% currently. On May 13, analysts at Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’. Hedge funds that reduced their stake in the company during the first quarter included Porter Collins, Daniel Moses, and Vincent Daniel’s Seawolf Capital, which brought its holding down by 61% to 336,489 shares.

Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF)

 –Investors with long positions (as of March 31) : 67

– Aggregate value of Investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $3.45 billion

Though the number of hedge funds tracked by us long Synchrony Financial NYSE:SYF) came down by 15 and the aggregate value of their holdings in it plummeted by $860 during the first quarter, Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF) still remained a relatively popular financial stock among funds at the end of that period. Since its separation from GE in 2014, Synchrony Financial has been performing well as an independent entity. Analysts and investors expect the company to announce a dividend and/or share repurchase program along with its second quarter results in July. Their expectation stems from the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, in which CFO Brian Doubles had revealed that Synchrony would be submitting its capital plans in accordance with CCAR requirements with the Fed in April, which will be hopefully approved by June. The stock currently sports an average rating of ‘Buy’ and an average price target of $37.67 from the 21 leading analysts and research houses who track it. Billionaire Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group was one of the hedge funds that increased their stakes in the company during the first quarter, by 60% to 9.31 million shares.

Disclosure: None