Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) investors should pay attention to a decrease in hedge fund sentiment in recent months.
According to most traders, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, outdated investment tools of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at the moment, we look at the upper echelon of this club, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their best stock picks, we have deciphered a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (explore the details and some picks here).
Equally as important, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of motivations for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the key action surrounding Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP).
Hedge fund activity in Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP)
In preparation for this year, a total of 26 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -4% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP), worth close to $199 million, accounting for 0.6% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Impala Asset Management, managed by Robert Bishop, which held a $108 million position; 1.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Curtis Macnguyen’s Ivory Capital (Investment Mgmt).
Judging by the fact that Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few hedgies that elected to cut their full holdings in Q4. Intriguingly, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC dropped the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, worth about $18 million in stock.. Richard Chilton’s fund, Chilton Investment Company, also sold off its stock, about $10 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds in Q4.
How are insiders trading Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s research, everyday investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) is no exception.
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