Where Do Hedge Funds Stand On MVB Financial Corp. (MVBF)?

Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the third quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves over the last 5 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF) based on that data.

MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF) has experienced a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months. MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF) was in 3 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistics is 7. Our calculations also showed that MVBF 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.

In the eyes of most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be worthless, outdated investment tools of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, We hone in on the bigwigs of this club, about 850 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people preside over the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by following their highest performing equity investments, Insider Monkey has spotted a number of investment strategies that have historically surpassed the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy exceeded the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points a year since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 13% since February 2017 (through November 17th) even though the market was up 65% during the same period. We just shared a list of 6 short targets in our latest quarterly update .

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 10 most profitable companies in the world 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.With all of this in mind we’re going to take a gander at the fresh hedge fund action regarding MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF).

How have hedgies been trading MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF)?

At third quarter’s end, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -40% from the second quarter of 2020. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards MVBF over the last 21 quarters. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, EJF Capital, managed by Emanuel J. Friedman, holds the most valuable position in MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF). EJF Capital has a $18 million position in the stock, comprising 1.5% of its 13F portfolio. On EJF Capital’s heels is Second Curve Capital, led by Tom Brown, holding a $3.3 million position; the fund has 13% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Second Curve Capital allocated the biggest weight to MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF), around 12.99% of its 13F portfolio. EJF Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 1.5 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MVBF.

Seeing as MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF) has experienced a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there was a specific group of hedge funds who were dropping their positions entirely heading into Q4. Interestingly, Phil Stone’s Fourthstone LLC dumped the biggest stake of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $0.4 million in stock, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.2 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF) but similarly valued. We will take a look at General Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:GFN), Atlanticus Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:ATLC), Great Ajax Corp (NYSE:AJX), North American Construction Group Ltd. (NYSE:NOA), CASI Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CASI), Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ:IMMR), and Rekor Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:REKR). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to MVBF’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 8 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $21 million. That figure was $22 million in MVBF’s case. Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ:IMMR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Atlanticus Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:ATLC) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for MVBF is 18.5. 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 28.1% in 2020 through November 23rd and still beat the market by 15.4 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on MVBF as the stock returned 26.5% since the end of the third quarter (through 11/23) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.