Hedge Funds Are Dumping Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (CRZO)

Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO) investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

In today’s marketplace, there are plenty of methods shareholders can use to track publicly traded companies. A duo 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 elite money managers can beat their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of reasons for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a look at the latest action regarding Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO).

How have hedgies been trading Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -11% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group had the largest position in Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO), worth close to $43.4 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Diamond Hill Capital, managed by Ric Dillon, which held a $7.4 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital.

Since Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO) has experienced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that elected to cut their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, Abby Flamholz and Yehuda Blinder’s ADAR Investment Management dropped the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, worth about $1.6 million in stock., and Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Krochuk of GRT Capital Partners was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $1.3 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds last quarter.

How are insiders trading Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO) 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 Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO). These stocks are LinnCo LLC (NASDAQ:LNCO), QR Energy LP (NYSE:QRE), Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ:FANG), Stone Energy Corporation (NYSE:SGY), and EPL Oil & Gas Inc (NYSE:EPL). This group of stocks are in the independent oil & gas industry and their market caps match CRZO’s market cap.

With the returns shown by the aforementioned tactics, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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