The successful funds run by legendary investors such as Dan Loeb and David Tepper make hundreds of millions of dollars for themselves and their investors by spending enormous resources doing research on small cap stocks that big investment banks don’t follow. Because of their pay structures, they have strong incentive to do the research necessary to beat the market. That’s why we pay close attention to what they think in small cap stocks. In this article, we take a closer look at Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB) from the perspective of those successful funds.
Is Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB) going to take off soon? Hedge funds are definitely turning bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions that are disclosed in regulatory 13F filings inched up by 1 lately. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with FMNB positions at the end of the 2016 third quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as The Chefs Warehouse, Inc (NASDAQ:CHEF), Panhandle Oil and Gas Inc. (NYSE:PHX), and Magnachip Semiconductor Corp (NYSE:MX) to gather more data points.
Follow Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB)
Follow Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB)
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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With all of this in mind, let’s take a glance at the latest action encompassing Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB).
How are hedge funds trading Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 7 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, up 17% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 3 hedge funds with a bullish position in FMNB at the beginning of this year. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Fred Cummings of Elizabeth Park Capital Management holds the biggest position in Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB). According to regulatory filings, the fund has a $4.6 million position in the stock, comprising 2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Neil Chriss’ Hutchin Hill Capital, which holds a $1.9 million position. Remaining peers that are bullish include Renaissance Technologies which is one of the largest hedge funds in the world, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have jumped into Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB) headfirst. Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital established the most outsized position in Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB). Springbok Capital had $30,000 invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB). We will take a look at The Chefs Warehouse, Inc (NASDAQ:CHEF), Panhandle Oil and Gas Inc. (NYSE:PHX), Magnachip Semiconductor Corp (NYSE:MX), and Royce Micro Capital Trust Inc (NYSE:RMT). This group of stocks’ market values resemble FMNB’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHEF | 5 | 12585 | 0 |
| PHX | 4 | 35866 | 0 |
| MX | 24 | 160551 | 8 |
| RMT | 5 | 20670 | 2 |
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 $57 million. That figure was $9 million in FMNB’s case. Magnachip Semiconductor Corp (NYSE:MX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Panhandle Oil and Gas Inc. (NYSE:PHX) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Farmers National Banc Corp (NASDAQ:FMNB) 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. In this regard MX might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
