Our extensive research has shown that imitating the smart money can generate significant returns for retail investors, which is why we track more than 700 prominent money managers and analyze their quarterly 13F filings. The stocks that are heavily bought by hedge funds historically outperformed the market, though there is no shortage of high profile gigantic failures like hedge funds’ recent losses in Valeant. Let’s take a closer look at what the funds we track think about Metro Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:METR) in this article.
Is Metro Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:METR) a first-rate investment now? Prominent investors are in a bullish mood. The number of long hedge fund bets rose by 2 lately. METR was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with METR positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare METR to other stocks including Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CNCE), Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN), and The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCKT) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Metro Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:METR)
Follow Metro Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:METR)
In the financial world there are tons of signals stock traders have at their disposal to evaluate stocks. A pair of the less known signals are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a superb margin (see the details here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a gander at the fresh action surrounding Metro Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:METR).
What does the smart money think about Metro Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:METR)?
Heading into Q4, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 29% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exist a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital has the largest position in Metro Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:METR), worth close to $14.9 million, corresponding to 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. On Magnetar Capital’s heels is Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment Corp, with an $8.1 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism encompass Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Matthew Lindenbaum’s Basswood Capital and Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Metro Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:METR). We will take a look at Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CNCE), Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN), The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCKT), and Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin Inc. (PINK:ABCW). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to METR’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNCE | 13 | 80424 | 2 |
| HWKN | 6 | 58860 | 0 |
| HCKT | 20 | 37959 | 7 |
| ABCW | 11 | 110615 | 3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $72 million. That figure was $38 million in METR’s case. The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCKT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. In comparison, with 9 bullish hedge fund points, Metro Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:METR) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still not impressive. This may indicate it is not a good choice for investment; therefore, we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are collectively most bullish on. In this regard, HCKT might be a better alternative.
