After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 817 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of September 30th. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Mackinac Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MFNC).
Mackinac Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MFNC) investors should be aware of an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. Mackinac Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MFNC) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistics is 7. Our calculations also showed that MFNC 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.
At the moment there are several metrics investors can use to size up publicly traded companies. A couple of the most underrated metrics are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can beat the S&P 500 by a significant margin (see the details here).
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 let’s review the fresh hedge fund action regarding Mackinac Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MFNC).
Jeffrey Gendell of Tontine Asset Management
How are hedge funds trading Mackinac Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MFNC)?
At third quarter’s end, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 50% from the second quarter of 2020. On the other hand, there were a total of 5 hedge funds with a bullish position in MFNC a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Mackinac Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MFNC) was held by EJF Capital, which reported holding $5.1 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Tontine Asset Management with a $1.8 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Minerva Advisors, Renaissance Technologies, and Zebra Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position EJF Capital allocated the biggest weight to Mackinac Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MFNC), around 0.42% of its 13F portfolio. Tontine Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.37 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MFNC.
As one would reasonably expect, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Zebra Capital Management, managed by Roger Ibbotson, created the most outsized position in Mackinac Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MFNC). Zebra Capital Management had $0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Phil Stone’s Fourthstone LLC also made a $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Mackinac Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MFNC) but similarly valued. These stocks are Information Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:III), MainStreet Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNSB), Aesthetic Medical International Holdings Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:AIH), Enzo Biochem, Inc. (NYSE:ENZ), Centrus Energy Corp. (NYSE:LEU), Velocity Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VEL), and Wayside Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSTG). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to MFNC’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| III | 5 | 18567 | 0 |
| MNSB | 2 | 7282 | -1 |
| AIH | 1 | 181 | 0 |
| ENZ | 10 | 26753 | 2 |
| LEU | 3 | 3398 | 1 |
| VEL | 7 | 19829 | -1 |
| WSTG | 3 | 7345 | 0 |
| Average | 4.4 | 11908 | 0.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 4.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $12 million. That figure was $8 million in MFNC’s case. Enzo Biochem, Inc. (NYSE:ENZ) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Aesthetic Medical International Holdings Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:AIH) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Mackinac Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MFNC) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for MFNC is 60.5. 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 30.7% in 2020 through November 27th and still beat the market by 16.1 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on MFNC as the stock returned 28.5% since the end of Q3 (through 11/27) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
