Should You Buy Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (GBCI)?

Should Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI) investors track the following data?

At the moment, there are tons of indicators shareholders can use to track publicly traded companies. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as crucial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to discuss the recent info for Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI).

How are hedge funds trading Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 9% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the largest position in Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI). Fisher Asset Management has a $51.8 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. On Fisher Asset Management’s heels is David Dreman of Dreman Value Management, with a $8.7 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital.

As one would understandably expect, particular hedge funds have jumped into Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI) headfirst. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, assembled the biggest position in Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI). Fisher Asset Management had 51.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management also made a $8.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new GBCI investors: Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, and Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time period, Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI). These stocks are Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY), CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF), Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL), WestAmerica Bancorp. (NASDAQ:WABC), and Umpqua Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:UMPQ). This group of stocks are the members of the regional – pacific banks industry and their market caps resemble GBCI’s market cap.