Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG): Insiders Are Buying, Should You? – First Connecticut Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:FBNK), National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG)

Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. OFG investors should be aware of a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with OFG positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are plenty of methods investors can use to track publicly traded companies. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top investment managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of incentives for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a glance at the recent action regarding Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG).

How have hedgies been trading Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

Of the funds we track, Tom Brown’s Second Curve Capital had the biggest position in Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG), worth close to $20 million, accounting for 5.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which held a $8 million position; 5.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital, Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Since Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG) has experienced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of fund managers who were dropping their full holdings heading into 2013. At the top of the heap, Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital dropped the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, comprising about $9 million in stock.. Steven Cohen’s fund, SAC Capital Advisors, also said goodbye to its stock, about $4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

What have insiders been doing with Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG) has seen 7 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG). These stocks are TCF Financial Corporation (NYSE:TCB), First Connecticut Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:FBNK), National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG), Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB), and State Bank Financial Corp (NASDAQ:STBZ). This group of stocks are the members of the money center banks industry and their market caps are similar to OFG’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s strategies, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:OFG) is an important part of this process.