Star-Bulletin contest
pays holiday bills

Star-Bulletin staff

IT'S been a rough few weeks for Hawaii stocks but at least two local stock watchers managed a healthy holiday profit.

Carl Inouye and Charles Tanimura, both of Oahu, were chosen winners of the Star-Bulletin's "Hawaii's Hot Stock" contest after correctly picking First Hawaiian Inc., parent of First Hawaiian Bank, as the best-performing local stock over the past month.

Inouye, 33, a deputy sheriff at the state Sheriff's Department, beat more than 2,000 entrants to win $500 in the newspaper's contest. Tanimura, 31, a financial planner with American Express Financial Advisers, gets $250 for topping 189 entrants in the starbulletin.com online contest.

In the contest, we gave readers a chance to guess the best performing stock between Nov. 24 and Dec. 19 from a list of 16 public companies with local ties. Those who picked the best performer were eligible for a drawing to win. Out of the 16 stocks, only four rose over the four weeks, with First Hawaiian leading the pack with a 7 percent gain. Ten stocks were losers for the month, while two were flat.

Inouye said he picked First Hawaiian mostly because he owns a few shares. But Tanimura did a little homework.

"I follow stocks as part of my job. So I took a look at the charts and did some technical analysis and that was one that looked pretty good," said Tanimura.

Both Inouye and Tanimura mentioned paying holiday bills as a possible use for their winnings.