Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund sentiment lately.
In the financial world, there are a multitude of gauges shareholders can use to watch Mr. Market. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a very impressive margin (see just how much).
Equally as key, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if investors know what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, let’s take a look at the latest action encompassing Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ).
How have hedgies been trading Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ)?
Heading into Q2, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -15% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.
According to our comprehensive database, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the largest position in Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ), worth close to $56.1 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $30.8 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
Because Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ) has experienced falling interest from the smart money, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds who sold off their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw dropped the largest position of the 450+ funds we track, worth about $0.7 million in stock., and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds last quarter.
Insider trading activity in Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ)
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ). These stocks are Signature Bank (NASDAQ:SBNY), National Penn Bancshares (NASDAQ:NPBC), Valley National Bancorp (NYSE:VLY), Webster Financial Corporation (NYSE:WBS), and Fulton Financial Corp (NASDAQ:FULT). All of these stocks are in the regional – northeast banks industry and their market caps resemble SUSQ’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Signature Bank (NASDAQ:SBNY) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| National Penn Bancshares (NASDAQ:NPBC) | 11 | 1 | 0 |
| Valley National Bancorp (NYSE:VLY) | 9 | 0 | 2 |
| Webster Financial Corporation (NYSE:WBS) | 17 | 0 | 10 |
| Fulton Financial Corp (NASDAQ:FULT) | 8 | 2 | 4 |
With the returns demonstrated by the aforementioned studies, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
