GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (GLF): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. GLF shareholders have witnessed a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with GLF holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are plenty of methods investors can use to track publicly traded companies. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. Obviously, there are a variety of reasons for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the latest action surrounding GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF).

How have hedgies been trading GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -30% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Michael Price’s MFP Investors had the largest position in GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF), worth close to $24.1 million, comprising 3.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $5.9 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management, John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Since GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF) has experienced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there is a sect of hedgies who sold off their entire stakes at the end of the first quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies cut the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at an estimated $1.8 million in stock., and John Overdeck and David Siegel of Two Sigma Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $1.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds at the end of the first quarter.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF)?

Insider buying is most useful when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time frame, GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 2 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 GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF). These stocks are Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE:HOS), Newpark Resources Inc (NYSE:NR), TETRA Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:TTI), Exterran Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ:EXLP), and C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES). This group of stocks belong to the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps are similar to GLF’s market cap.

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s strategies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF) is an important part of this process.

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