Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE) has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently.
To most stock holders, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, old financial tools of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at present, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the crème de la crème of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by monitoring their best picks, we have spotted a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).
Just as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. There are many stimuli for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if shareholders understand where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a look at the latest action encompassing Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE).
How have hedgies been trading Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE)?
At year’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -18% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.
Of the funds we track, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the largest position in Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE). Renaissance Technologies has a $12.5 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, which held a $3.5 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, John Murphy’s Alydar Capital and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Due to the fact that Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE) has experienced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who sold off their entire stakes heading into 2013. Interestingly, Andrew R. Midler’s Savitr Capital dropped the largest stake of all the hedgies we track, totaling an estimated $1.3 million in stock., and Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.2 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds heading into 2013.
How are insiders trading Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE)?
Bullish insider trading is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE) has experienced 1 unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE). These stocks are Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP), Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR), IDACORP Inc (NYSE:IDA), Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN), and Cleco Corporation (NYSE:CNL). This group of stocks are the members of the electric utilities industry and their market caps match HE’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP) | 13 | 0 | 2 |
| Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR) | 12 | 0 | 1 |
| IDACORP Inc (NYSE:IDA) | 8 | 0 | 7 |
| Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN) | 16 | 3 | 1 |
| Cleco Corporation (NYSE:CNL) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, everyday investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE) is an important part of this process.
