Hedge Funds Are Dumping Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (APC)

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) has seen a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late.

In the financial world, there are tons of indicators shareholders can use to watch the equity markets. A pair 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 top picks of the top hedge fund managers can trounce the market by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are many stimuli for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a glance at the key action surrounding Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC).

What does the smart money think about Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 60 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -12% from the fourth quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Jonathon Jacobson’s Highfields Capital Management had the largest position in Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC), worth close to $498.7 million, accounting for 4.5% of its total 13F portfolio. On Highfields Capital Management’s heels is D. E. Shaw of D E Shaw, with a $328.2 million position; 0.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Kenneth Mario Garschina’s Mason Capital Management and Keith Meister’s Corvex Capital.

Judging by the fact that Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) has witnessed falling interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there was a specific group of hedgies who were dropping their full holdings heading into Q2. Intriguingly, Jonathon Jacobson’s Highfields Capital Management dropped the biggest stake of all the hedgies we key on, totaling close to $289.8 million in call options. Richard Perry’s fund, Perry Capital, also cut its call options., about $77.1 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 8 funds heading into Q2.

Insider trading activity in Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC)

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC). These stocks are Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA), EOG Resources Inc (NYSE:EOG), Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD), Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ), and Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU). All of these stocks are in the independent oil & gas industry and their market caps are closest to APC’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by the aforementioned tactics, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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