Is Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (OKSB) Worth An Investment?

Judging by the fact that Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB) has witnessed falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of funds that decided to sell off their entire stakes last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management dropped the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $0.7 million in stock. Ken Griffin’s fund, Citadel Investment Group, also dumped its stock, about $0.7 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 fund last quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID), National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA), Phoenix New Media Ltd ADR (NYSE:FENG), and Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to OKSB’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $56 million. That figure was $21 million in OKSB’s case. Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Phoenix New Media Ltd ADR (NYSE:FENG) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKSB) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard AVID might be a better candidate to consider for a long position.