C&J Energy Services Inc (CJES): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?: TETRA Technologies, Inc. (TTI), Exterran Holdings, Inc. (EXH)

Is C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES) a good investment today? The best stock pickers are reducing their bets on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund positions went down by 8 recently.

At the moment, there are a multitude of indicators shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. Some of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can beat their index-focused peers by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. There are lots of incentives for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if shareholders understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action regarding C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES).

How are hedge funds trading C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES)?

At year’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -47% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES). Royce & Associates has a $60 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $46 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish include David Nierenberg’s Nierenberg Investment Management, Michael Johnston’s Steelhead Partners and Joshua Berkowitz’s Woodbine Capital.

Seeing as C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES) has experienced falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into 2013. At the top of the heap, David Gallo’s Valinor Management LLC dropped the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds we track, comprising an estimated $19 million in stock.. Abby Flamholz and Yehuda Blinder’s fund, ADAR Investment Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $10 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 8 funds heading into 2013.

How have insiders been trading C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES). These stocks are TETRA Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:TTI), Exterran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EXH), Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE:HOS), GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF), and Exterran Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ:EXLP). This group of stocks are the members of the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps match CJES’s market cap.

With the returns exhibited by our strategies, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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