Hedge Funds and other institutional investors have just completed filing their 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing their equity portfolios as of the end of September. At Insider Monkey, we follow nearly 817 active hedge funds and notable investors and by analyzing their 13F filings, we can determine the stocks that they are collectively bullish on. One of their picks is Select Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLCT), so let’s take a closer look at the sentiment that surrounds it in the current quarter.
Hedge fund interest in Select Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLCT) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. Our calculations also showed that SLCT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks). At the end of this article we will also compare SLCT to other stocks including AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX), Platinum Group Metals Limited (NYSE:PLG), and Codorus Valley Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVLY) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, old financial tools of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds in operation today, We look at the bigwigs of this group, approximately 850 funds. These money managers command the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by watching their finest investments, Insider Monkey has brought to light a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 13% since February 2017 (through November 17th) even though the market was up 65% during the same period. We just shared a list of 6 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost real estate prices. So, we recommended this real estate stock to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 15 best blue chip stocks to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. 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 website. Now we’re going to go over the new hedge fund action regarding Select Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLCT).
How have hedgies been trading Select Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLCT)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 5 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in SLCT over the last 21 quarters. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Fourthstone LLC was the largest shareholder of Select Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLCT), with a stake worth $5.2 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Fourthstone LLC was Elizabeth Park Capital Management, which amassed a stake valued at $2.1 million. Mendon Capital Advisors, Renaissance Technologies, and Seidman Investment Partnership 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 Fourthstone LLC allocated the biggest weight to Select Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLCT), around 4.34% of its 13F portfolio. Elizabeth Park Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 1.37 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to SLCT.
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 check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Select Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLCT) but similarly valued. These stocks are AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX), Platinum Group Metals Limited (NYSE:PLG), Codorus Valley Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVLY), NACCO Industries, Inc. (NYSE:NC), Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ:EVGN), Battalion Oil Corporation (NYSE:BATL), and Riot Blockchain, Inc (NASDAQ:RIOT). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble SLCT’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACRX | 5 | 6850 | 2 |
| PLG | 3 | 3394 | -1 |
| CVLY | 4 | 14459 | 0 |
| NC | 4 | 6624 | -1 |
| EVGN | 2 | 2543 | 1 |
| BATL | 4 | 83866 | -1 |
| RIOT | 4 | 1053 | 1 |
| Average | 3.7 | 16970 | 0.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 3.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $17 million. That figure was $11 million in SLCT’s case. AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ:EVGN) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Select Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLCT) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for SLCT is 80. 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. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10 percentage points. These stocks gained 30.7% in 2020 through November 27th and still beat the market by 16.1 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on SLCT as the stock returned 29.6% since the end of Q3 (through 11/27) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Follow Select Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:SLCT)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
