We at Insider Monkey have gone over 817 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30th. In this article, we look at what those funds think of First Financial Corp (NASDAQ:THFF) based on that data.
Is THFF a good stock to buy right now? First Financial Corp (NASDAQ:THFF) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistics is 11. THFF investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with THFF holdings at the end of June. Our calculations also showed that THFF 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).
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
To the average investor there are a large number of gauges stock market investors use to size up their holdings. A duo of the most innovative gauges are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a solid margin (see the details here).
Peter Rathjens of Arrowstreet Capital
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. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a glance at the key hedge fund action surrounding First Financial Corp (NASDAQ:THFF).
Do Hedge Funds Think THFF Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At third quarter’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 25% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in THFF over the last 21 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Stadium Capital Management held the most valuable stake in First Financial Corp (NASDAQ:THFF), which was worth $11.7 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Renaissance Technologies which amassed $5.9 million worth of shares. Arrowstreet Capital, AQR Capital Management, and Two Sigma Advisors 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 Stadium Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to First Financial Corp (NASDAQ:THFF), around 5.52% of its 13F portfolio. Winton Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.03 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to THFF.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have jumped into First Financial Corp (NASDAQ:THFF) headfirst. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, initiated the most valuable position in First Financial Corp (NASDAQ:THFF). Citadel Investment Group had $0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $0.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to First Financial Corp (NASDAQ:THFF). We will take a look at Global Cord Blood Corp (NYSE:CO), TherapeuticsMD Inc (NASDAQ:TXMD), Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HARP), Alphatec Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:ATEC), Star Group L.P. (NYSE:SGU), Tribune Publishing Company (NASDAQ:TPCO), and Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to THFF’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CO | 8 | 23946 | -3 |
| TXMD | 11 | 36272 | 1 |
| HARP | 12 | 59522 | 1 |
| ATEC | 13 | 42822 | 1 |
| SGU | 9 | 81549 | -2 |
| TPCO | 13 | 151012 | -2 |
| VVI | 15 | 65128 | 0 |
| Average | 11.6 | 65750 | -0.6 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $66 million. That figure was $23 million in THFF’s case. Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Global Cord Blood Corp (NYSE:CO) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. First Financial Corp (NASDAQ:THFF) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for THFF is 48.6. 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 32.9% in 2020 through December 8th and still beat the market by 16.2 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on THFF as the stock returned 24.1% since the end of the third quarter (through 12/8) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
