Here is What Hedge Funds Think About BOK Financial Corporation (BOKF)

Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and famous investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds and investors’ positions as of the end of the third quarter. You can find write-ups 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 and analyze what the smart money thinks of BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF) based on that data.

Is BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF) an outstanding investment now? The smart money is in a bearish mood. The number of bullish hedge fund positions has gone down by 1 in recent months. BOKF was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with BOKF positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare BOKF to other stocks, including White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd (NYSE:WTM), NewMarket Corporation (NYSE:NEU), and Tempur-Pedic International Inc. (NYSE:TPX) to get a better sense of its popularity.

According to most investors, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, old investment vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open today, We choose to focus on the bigwigs of this club, around 700 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors have their hands on bulk of the smart money’s total capital, and by keeping track of their finest picks, Insider Monkey has discovered various investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per annum for a decade in their back tests.

With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at the key action surrounding BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF).

What have hedge funds been doing with BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -9% from the second quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF). Royce & Associates has an $36.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which holds an $8.2 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other members of the smart money that hold long positions encompass Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Charles Davidson’s Wexford Capital.

Because BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF) has witnessed falling interest from the smart money, we can see that there were a few funds that slashed their entire stakes in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Carson Yost’s Yost Capital Management said goodbye to the largest position of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $10.4 million in stock, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $4.8 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF). These stocks are White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd (NYSE:WTM), NewMarket Corporation (NYSE:NEU), Tempur-Pedic International Inc. (NYSE:TPX), and PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW). This group of stocks’ market values match BOKF’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 21 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $442 million. That figure was $98 million in BOKF’s case. Tempur-Pedic International Inc. (NYSE:TPX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand NewMarket Corporation (NYSE:NEU) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF) is even less popular than NEU. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is required.