Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB) investors should pay attention to a decrease in hedge fund sentiment in recent months.
In the financial world, there are a multitude of methods shareholders can use to analyze publicly traded companies. A duo of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Just as key, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of motivations for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the key action regarding Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB).
What does the smart money think about Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB)?
In preparation for this year, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -13% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Polaris Capital Management, managed by Bernard Horn, holds the most valuable position in Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB). Polaris Capital Management has a $23 million position in the stock, comprising 1.6% of its 13F portfolio. On Polaris Capital Management’s heels is Matthew Lindenbaum of Basswood Capital, with a $7.4 million position; the fund has 0.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include James Dondero’s Highland Capital Management, Israel 
Due to the fact that Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB) has witnessed a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there is a sect of funds that decided to sell off their entire stakes last quarter. At the top of the heap, Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Kroch’s GRT Capital Partners said goodbye to the largest investment of the 450+ funds we monitor, valued at about $0.3 million in stock., and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell of Arrowstreet Capital was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds last quarter.
How have insiders been trading Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB)?
Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB) has experienced 2 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB). These stocks are MetroCorp Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCBI), West Bancorporation, Inc. (NASDAQ:WTBA), MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MOFG), OmniAmerican Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OABC), and Enterprise Financial Services Corp (NASDAQ:EFSC). This group of stocks are the members of the regional – southwest banks industry and their market caps are closest to OKSB’s market cap.