Bank of Hawaii Corporation (BOH): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE:BOH) investors should be aware of an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently.

To the average investor, there are tons of indicators market participants can use to watch Mr. Market. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top investment managers can beat their index-focused peers by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the world of equities. Obviously, there are plenty of reasons for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if investors know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the key action regarding Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE:BOH).

Hedge fund activity in Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE:BOH)

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 50% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE:BOH), worth close to $43.7 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Dreman Value Management, managed by David Dreman, which held a $36.1 million position; the fund has 1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include Gregg J. Powers’s Private Capital Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital.

As one would reasonably expect, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Bryn Mawr Capital, managed by Ken Gray and Steve Walsh, established the largest position in Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE:BOH). Bryn Mawr Capital had 2.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also initiated a $1.1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new BOH investors: D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

How are insiders trading Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE:BOH)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE:BOH) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE:BOH). These stocks are East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC), Umpqua Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:UMPQ), Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY), SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SIVB), and City National Corp (NYSE:CYN). This group of stocks are in the regional – pacific banks industry and their market caps resemble BOH’s market cap.