Regions Financial Corporation (RF): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF) investors might want to take note of this data.

At the moment, there are a multitude of gauges shareholders can use to track their holdings. Some of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Equally as necessary, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the world of equities. There are many incentives for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to analyze the recent info surrounding Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF).

How are hedge funds trading Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 35 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -5% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the largest position in Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF). Citadel Investment Group has a $249.7 million position in the stock, comprising 0.4% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Peter Rathjens Bruce Clarke and John Campbell of Arrowstreet Capital, with a $89.9 million position; 0.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management.

Since Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF) has faced dropping sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedge funds that elected to cut their positions entirely at the end of the second quarter. Interestingly, Ron Gutfleish’s Elm Ridge Capital dropped the largest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at close to $25 million in stock, and Curtis Macnguyen of Ivory Capital (Investment Mgmt) was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $17.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds at the end of the second quarter.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF). These stocks are Trustmark Corp (NASDAQ:TRMK), F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB), EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER), First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN), and Hancock Holding Company (NASDAQ:HBHC). This group of stocks are in the regional – southeast banks industry and their market caps resemble RF’s market cap.