Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Gulfport Energy Corporation (GPOR)

To the average investor, there are tons of gauges shareholders can use to watch stocks. Some of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top investment managers can outclass the market by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as crucial, bullish insider trading activity is another way to analyze the financial markets. There are plenty of reasons for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to discuss the latest info surrounding Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR).

What have hedge funds been doing with Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 27 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 8% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, holds the most valuable position in Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR). Millennium Management has a $120.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.4% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is David Stemerman of Conatus Capital Management, with a $85.1 million position; the fund has 3.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and Ryan Heslop and Ariel Warszawski’s Firefly Value Partners.

As aggregate interest spiked, certain money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, created the most valuable position in Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR). Millennium Management had 120.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Stemerman’s Conatus Capital Management also initiated a $85.1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new GPOR investors: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, and Ryan Heslop and Ariel Warszawski’s Firefly Value Partners.

Insider trading activity in Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero 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 Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR). These stocks are Ultra Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:UPL), SM Energy Co. (NYSE:SM), WPX Energy Inc (NYSE:WPX), Energen Corporation (NYSE:EGN), and Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS). This group of stocks are the members of the independent oil & gas industry and their market caps are similar to GPOR’s market cap.