Hedge Funds Are Dumping Weatherford International Ltd (WFT)

Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT) was in 35 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. WFT shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently. There were 38 hedge funds in our database with WFT positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In today’s marketplace, there are plenty of methods market participants can use to monitor stocks. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top fund managers can outperform the market by a significant margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of incentives for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a gander at the key action encompassing Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT).

What have hedge funds been doing with Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 35 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -8% from the previous quarter.

Seeing as Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there is a sect of money managers who were dropping their full holdings heading into Q2. Intriguingly, David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP dumped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we track, totaling an estimated $56 million in stock., and Arvind Sanger of GeoSphere Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $7.9 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds heading into Q2.

What have insiders been doing with Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time frame, Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT) has experienced 6 unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT). These stocks are MDU Resources Group Inc (NYSE:MDU), Cameron International Corporation (NYSE:CAM), Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB), FMC Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FTI), and Oceaneering International (NYSE:OII). All of these stocks are in the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps match WFT’s market cap.

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds