Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Home Bancshares Inc (HOMB)

Should Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB) investors track the following data?

In the financial world, there are tons of gauges shareholders can use to track Mr. Market. Two of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can beat the S&P 500 by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. There are a number of incentives for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to study the recent info for Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB).

How have hedgies been trading Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -44% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the biggest position in Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB). AQR Capital Management has a $3.7 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $3.5 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds with similar optimism include Mike Vranos’s Ellington, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

Judging by the fact that Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB) has faced a fall in interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, logic holds that there were a few hedge funds who were dropping their positions entirely heading into Q2. At the top of the heap, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group dumped the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, valued at close to $0.9 million in stock, and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.4 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds heading into Q2.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB). These stocks are First Connecticut Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:FBNK), TCF Financial Corporation (NYSE:TCB), State Bank Financial Corp (NASDAQ:STBZ), Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG), and National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG). This group of stocks are in the money center banks industry and their market caps match HOMB’s market cap.