Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL): Insiders Are Dumping, Should You? – PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW), Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI)

Is Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) a good investment now? Prominent investors are in a bearish mood. The number of long hedge fund positions stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience

At the moment, there are many indicators investors can use to watch their holdings. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of incentives for a corporate insider 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 useful potential of this method if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the recent action encompassing Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL).

Hedge fund activity in Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL)

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 one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the biggest position in Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL). Citadel Investment Group has a $9 million position in the stock, comprising 0% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $8 million position; the fund has 0% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and John Brennan’s Sirios Capital Management.

Seeing as Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) has witnessed declining sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there were a few hedgies that decided to sell off their positions entirely last quarter. At the top of the heap, Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp said goodbye to the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, comprising an estimated $0 million in stock.. Mike Vranos’s fund, Ellington, also sold off its stock, about $0 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How have insiders been trading Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL). These stocks are BBCN Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBCN), PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW), Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI), WestAmerica Bancorp. (NASDAQ:WABC), and CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF). This group of stocks are in the regional – pacific banks industry and their market caps are closest to WAL’s market cap.

With the returns shown by our studies, retail investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) is no exception.