Old National Bancorp (ONB): Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About It, Insider Sentiment Unchanged

Is it smart to be bullish on Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB)?

In today’s marketplace, there are many gauges investors can use to watch stocks. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see just how much).

Just as useful, bullish insider trading activity is another way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are many motivations for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

Furthermore, we’re going to discuss the recent info surrounding Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB).

How are hedge funds trading Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -17% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group had the largest position in Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB), worth close to $20 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Citadel Investment Group’s heels is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $7.5 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers with similar optimism include David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Due to the fact Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB) has witnessed declining interest from the top-tier hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there were a few fund managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely at the end of the second quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp cut the largest stake of all the hedgies we track, totaling close to $0.3 million in stock. Steven Cohen’s fund, SAC Capital Advisors, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.2 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds at the end of the second quarter.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time frame, Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB). These stocks are Firstmerit Corp (NASDAQ:FMER), Park National Corporation (NYSEAMEX:PRK), MB Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBFI), PrivateBancorp Inc (NASDAQ:PVTB), and Wintrust Financial Corp (NASDAQ:WTFC). This group of stocks belong to the regional – midwest banks industry and their market caps resemble ONB’s market cap.