Financial services hedge fund Endeavour Capital Advisors Inc. substantially increased its exposure to U.S. regional banks in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The fund more than quadrupled its position in Signature Bank, which reported $73.89 billion in total assets at Dec. 31, 2020. According to Endeavour Capital's most recent Form 13F, the New York-based bank represented the fund's top holding at $54.6 million.

Signature Bank has been bolstering its balance sheet during the last two quarters, with a common stock offering in February, a preferred stock offering in December 2020 and a subordinated debt offering in October 2020. It also was one of the most active branch openers across the industry in 2020.

Click here to see Endeavour Capital's holdings as of Dec. 31, 2020.

Endeavour Capital boosted its positions in a handful of other regional banks by more than 500%: Portland, Ore.-based Umpqua Holdings Corp.; Chicago-based First Midwest Bancorp Inc.; Wilmington, Del.-based WSFS Financial Corp.; and Wayne, N.J.-based Valley National Bancorp.

Eastern Bankshares Inc., another regional bank, was the third-largest initiation during the fourth quarter. The Boston-based bank completed a mutual-to-stock conversion last October, raising $1.79 billion in gross proceeds.

Endeavour Capital also added seven real estate investment trusts to its portfolio last quarter. Data center REIT CyrusOne Inc., which the fund had exited in the third quarter of 2020, was the top new entry.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. was the fund's largest fourth-quarter exit. Two other exits, Clayton, Mo.-based Enterprise Financial Services Corp. and application software company Intelligent Systems Corp., had been third-quarter entries.

Endeavour Capital was established by Larry Austin and Mitch Katz in 1994.