Old National Bancorp (ONB): Insiders Are Buying, Should You?

Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB) has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months.

In the financial world, there are tons of indicators investors can use to monitor the equity markets. A pair of the most underrated 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 fund managers can beat the market by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of motivations for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the latest action surrounding Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB).

What have hedge funds been doing with Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

Of the funds we track, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the most valuable position in Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB). Citadel Investment Group has a $15.2 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $7 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Since Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there was a specific group of fund managers who sold off their positions entirely last quarter. Interestingly, Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital cut the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we track, comprising about $2.8 million in stock. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

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

Insider buying is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, Old National Bancorp (NYSE:ONB) has experienced 6 unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity 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). All of these stocks are in the regional – midwest banks industry and their market caps resemble ONB’s market cap.