Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) is one of the best, big oil and gas plays at the moment. Up over 16% year-to-date, one group of money managers is partially responsible for driving these gains.
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Equally as necessary, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the financial markets. Obviously, there are many incentives for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to study the recent info about Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB).
What have hedge funds been doing with Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 63 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 11% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.
Consequently, certain bigger names were leading the bulls’ herd. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, assembled the most valuable position in Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB). Fisher Asset Management had 292.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors also made a $208.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, Jason Capello’s Merchants’ Gate Capital, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB)?
Insider buying is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB). These stocks are FMC Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FTI), Cameron International Corporation (NYSE:CAM), Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI), National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV), and Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL). This group of stocks are the members of the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps resemble SLB’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| FMC Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FTI) | 16 | 0 | 5 |
| Cameron International Corporation (NYSE:CAM) | 33 | 0 | 5 |
| Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) | 32 | 0 | 5 |
| National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV) | 43 | 1 | 1 |
| Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) | 62 | 0 | 9 |
Using the results demonstrated by our tactics, average investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) is no exception.
