Here is What Hedge Funds Think About FVCBankcorp, Inc. (FVCB)

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 866 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their March 31st holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider FVCBankcorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:FVCB) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.

Hedge fund interest in FVCBankcorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:FVCB) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. Our calculations also showed that FVCB isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings). At the end of this article we will also compare FVCB to other stocks including SLR Senior Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:SUNS), Franklin Wireless Corp. (NASDAQ:FKWL), and HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) to get a better sense of its popularity.

So, why do we pay attention to hedge fund sentiment before making any investment decisions? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We have been able to outperform the passive index funds by tracking the moves of corporate insiders and hedge funds, and we believe small investors can benefit a lot from reading hedge fund investor letters and 13F filings.

Fred Cummings of Elizabeth Park Capital

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, an activist hedge fund wants to buy this $28 biotech stock for $50. So, we recommended a long position to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Keeping this in mind let’s take a look at the fresh hedge fund action regarding FVCBankcorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:FVCB).

Do Hedge Funds Think FVCB Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of March, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 3 hedge funds with a bullish position in FVCB a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Among these funds, Elizabeth Park Capital Management held the most valuable stake in FVCBankcorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:FVCB), which was worth $4 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Ancora Advisors which amassed $0.7 million worth of shares. Renaissance Technologies was 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 Elizabeth Park Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to FVCBankcorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:FVCB), around 1.33% of its 13F portfolio. Ancora Advisors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.02 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FVCB.

Earlier we told you that the aggregate hedge fund interest in the stock was unchanged and we view this as a negative development. Even though there weren’t any hedge funds dumping their holdings during the third quarter, there weren’t any hedge funds initiating brand new positions. This indicates that hedge funds, at the very best, perceive this stock as dead money and they haven’t identified any viable catalysts that can attract investor attention.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as FVCBankcorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:FVCB) but similarly valued. We will take a look at SLR Senior Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:SUNS), Franklin Wireless Corp. (NASDAQ:FKWL), HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI), LG Display Co Ltd. (NYSE:LPL), KVH Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:KVHI), Ames National Corporation (NASDAQ:ATLO), and LogicBio Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOGC). This group of stocks’ market values resemble FVCB’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 4.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $23 million. That figure was $5 million in FVCB’s case. LG Display Co Ltd. (NYSE:LPL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Franklin Wireless Corp. (NASDAQ:FKWL) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. FVCBankcorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:FVCB) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for FVCB is 27.1. 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. 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 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 17.2% in 2021 through June 11th and surpassed the market again by 3.3 percentage points. Unfortunately FVCB wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); FVCB investors were disappointed as the stock returned 2.6% since the end of March (through 6/11) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2021.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.