Gator Capital Management, an asset management company, recently released its third-quarter investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund outperformed both the broader market and the Financials sector benchmark in the third quarter. The fund returned 7.44% in the quarter compared to -3.27% and -0.90% for the S&P 500 Total Return Index and S&P 1500 Financials Index, respectively. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.
Gator Capital Management highlighted stocks like First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) in the third quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) is a bank holding company for First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company that provides retail and commercial banking services. On December 1, 2023, First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) stock closed at $1,485.79 per share. One-month return of First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) was 4.03%, and its shares gained 86.41% of their value over the last 52 weeks. First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) has a market capitalization of $21.399 billion.
Gator Capital Management made the following comment about First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:
“The Fund’s largest position is First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) (“First Citizens” or “FCNCA”). We acquired our stake over the past three years. Initially, we owned and traded around a small position in CIT Group Inc. (“CIT”) during the summer of 2020. We felt CIT was undervalued and management was making progress in reducing risk during the Covid-19 pandemic. In late 2020, CIT agreed to be acquired by First Citizens. We added to our CIT stake the morning of the acquisition announcement because we thought the acquisition was so financially attractive that First Citizens’ shares would rally and pull CIT’s shares higher. Our CIT shares were exchanged for First Citizens shares when the merger completed. We held onto our First Citizens shares because we admired the management team, we felt the bank was undervalued, and we projected the bank would benefit from higher interest rates. Then, earlier this year, First Citizens was the winning bidder in the FDIC’s auction of the failed Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”). We added significantly to the Fund’s First Citizens position on the following Monday morning because the deal was unbelievably favorable for First Citizens.
First Citizens’s stock price rose more than 50% that day and has risen another 40% in the months since the SVB acquisition. We have not sold any shares. We believe the stock still has the potential to double over the next three years. Despite this attractive upside, we think the downside is minimal. Our downside scenario is an unchanged stock price in three years…” (Click here to read the full text)
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First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 46 hedge fund portfolios held First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) at the end of third quarter which was 49 in the previous quarter.
We discussed First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) in another article and shared the list of best cheap stocks to buy now for the long term. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
