To many traders, hedge funds are seen as useless, old investment vehicles of a forgotten age. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open currently, Insider Monkey focuses on the masters of this group, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group controls most of the smart money’s total assets, and by paying attention to their highest performing investments, we’ve unsheathed a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find the details here).
Equally as necessary, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to look at the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are lots of stimuli for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you know what to do (learn more here).
Thus, let’s study the recent info surrounding BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF).
What have hedge funds been doing with BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF)?
At Q2’s end, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 20% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.
As aggregate interest spiked, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, assembled the most valuable position in BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF). Royce & Associates had 35.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $8.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BOKF positions are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management, and David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF)?
Insider buying is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF). These stocks are Texas Capital Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:TCBI), UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF), Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB), Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH), and Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR). This group of stocks are in the regional – southwest banks industry and their market caps are similar to BOKF’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Texas Capital Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:TCBI) | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results shown by Insider Monkey’s studies, average investors should always track hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF) applies perfectly to this mantra.
