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 Beneficial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BNCL) in this article.
Is Beneficial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BNCL) a healthy stock for your portfolio? The smart money is becoming less confident. The number of bullish hedge fund positions retreated by 1 in recent months. BNCL was in 24 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 25 hedge funds in our database with BNCL positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare BNCL to other stocks including The Fresh Market Inc (NASDAQ:TFM), BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI), and Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the key action regarding Beneficial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BNCL).
How have hedgies been trading Beneficial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BNCL)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -4% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich’s Scopia Capital has the largest position in Beneficial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BNCL), worth close to $101.7 million, corresponding to 2.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with an $37.6 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that are bullish contain Emanuel J. Friedman’s EJF Capital, D E Shaw and Neil Chriss’ Hutchin Hill Capital.
Because Beneficial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BNCL) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers who were dropping their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Howard Guberman’s Gruss Asset Management sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $18.7 million in stock. Peter Muller’s fund, PDT Partners, also said goodbye to its stock, about $3.9 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds by the end of the third quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Beneficial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BNCL) but similarly valued. These stocks are The Fresh Market Inc (NASDAQ:TFM), BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI), Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR), and Forum Energy Technologies Inc (NYSE:FET). All of these stocks’ market caps match BNCL’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| TFM | 19 | 112676 | 1 |
| BJRI | 16 | 154077 | 1 |
| RGR | 14 | 30829 | 5 |
| FET | 12 | 41559 | -7 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $85 million. That figure was $240 million in BNCL’s case. The Fresh Market Inc (NASDAQ:TFM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Forum Energy Technologies Inc (NYSE:FET) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Beneficial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BNCL) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.
