Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HE)

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. HE has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with HE positions at the end of the previous quarter.

If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, old investment vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading at the moment, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the bigwigs of this club, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls the majority of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their best equity investments, we have deciphered a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the financial markets. There are lots of incentives for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a look at the key action encompassing Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE).

What have hedge funds been doing with Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 11% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.

Of the funds we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the most valuable position in Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE), worth close to $6.8 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $5.1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Thomas M. Fitzgerald’s Longbow Capital Partners, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.

Consequently, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Longbow Capital Partners, managed by Thomas M. Fitzgerald, created the most outsized position in Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE). Longbow Capital Partners had 4.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also initiated a $1.2 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new HE position is Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review 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 belong to the electric utilities industry and their market caps resemble HE’s market cap.