Is Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:NOG) a great investment right now? Hedge funds are selling. The number of bullish hedge fund positions shrunk by 1 lately.
In the eyes of most market participants, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading today, we choose to focus on the leaders of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by monitoring their top investments, we have uncovered a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).
Just as key, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors understand what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the key action regarding Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:NOG).
What does the smart money think about Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:NOG)?
In preparation for this quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -13% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.
Of the funds we track, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the most valuable position in Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:NOG). Citadel Investment Group has a $3.8 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Highbridge Capital Management, managed by Glenn Russell Dubin, which held a $3.5 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Since Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:NOG) has witnessed bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there was a specific group of fund managers that slashed their full holdings in Q1. Intriguingly, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management dumped the largest position of the 450+ funds we track, comprising an estimated $8.1 million in stock., and Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $2.9 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds in Q1.
What have insiders been doing with Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:NOG)?
Insider buying is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:NOG) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:NOG). These stocks are W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:WTI), Bill Barrett Corporation (NYSE:BBG), Approach Resources Inc. (NASDAQ:AREX), Pioneer Southwest Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE:PSE), and Rex Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:REXX). This group of stocks belong to the oil & gas drilling & exploration industry and their market caps match NOG’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:WTI) | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Bill Barrett Corporation (NYSE:BBG) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Approach Resources Inc. (NASDAQ:AREX) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Pioneer Southwest Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE:PSE) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Rex Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:REXX) | 8 | 1 | 1 |
With the returns exhibited by our tactics, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:NOG) is an important part of this process.
