Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Hanmi Financial Corp (HAFC)

Hanmi Financial Corp (NASDAQ:HAFC) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. HAFC has experienced a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with HAFC positions at the end of the previous quarter.

At the moment, there are a multitude of gauges shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. Some 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 elite investment managers can beat the market by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as key, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of motivations for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a gander at the key action regarding Hanmi Financial Corp (NASDAQ:HAFC).

How have hedgies been trading Hanmi Financial Corp (NASDAQ:HAFC)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital had the most valuable position in Hanmi Financial Corp (NASDAQ:HAFC), worth close to $12.7 million, comprising 0.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $6.2 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, John Brennan’s Sirios Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Seeing as Hanmi Financial Corp (NASDAQ:HAFC) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there was a specific group of fund managers who sold off their positions entirely heading into Q2. Intriguingly, Mike Vranos’s Ellington said goodbye to the biggest position of the 450+ funds we key on, worth close to $0.3 million in stock.. Mark A. Nordlicht’s fund, Platinum Management, also cut its stock, about $0.1 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

What have insiders been doing with Hanmi Financial Corp (NASDAQ:HAFC)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Hanmi Financial Corp (NASDAQ:HAFC) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Hanmi Financial Corp (NASDAQ:HAFC). These stocks are TriCo Bancshares (NASDAQ:TCBK), First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK), Cascade Bancorp (NASDAQ:CACB), Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE:CPF), and West Coast Bancorp (NASDAQ:WCBO). This group of stocks are the members of the regional – pacific banks industry and their market caps match HAFC’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s strategies, everyday investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Hanmi Financial Corp (NASDAQ:HAFC) is no exception.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds