Insider Trading: Howard Marks’ Oaktree Capital Bought Call Options in $XCO

Howard Marks’ Oaktree Capital reported its insider purchases of 10,000 call options in Exco Resources Inc. (XCO) on November 8th. These options will grant the firm to purchase 5,000 shares at $18.34 and another 5,000 shares at $13.19. Based on the firm’s newest 13F in third quarter, Oaktree Capital took 34.78 million XCO shares as of September 30th, which was unchanged from its Q2’s position. XCO has lost 35% year to date. The stock is closed at $12.49 on Wednesday.

XCO was a popular stock loved by the hedge funds in our tracking list. In total thirty five hedge funds took the stock in their portfolios in the second quarter. Wilbur Ross’ Invesco Private Capital (WI ROSS) followed Oaktree Capital and had 21 million shares, down by 95% from the first quarter. Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group opened its XCO position in the second quarter and had 9 million shares in the stock.

Oaktree Capital is a global investment management firm. The firm has an approximately $7.35 billion portfolio under management. The firm focuses on a limited number of sophisticated investment specialties, and is involved in less efficient markets and alternative investments. The firm mainly invests in Services, Basic Materials, Technology, and Financial sector.

Exco Resources Inc. is an independent oil and natural gas company. It engages in the exploration, exploitation, development and production of onshore North American oil and natural gas properties. Additionally, the company owns 50% interest in a midstream joint ventures located in East Texas, North Louisiana and Appalachia, respectively. The company had reserves of about 1.5 trillion cubic feet equivalent, and operated 7,276 wells as of December 31st, 2010. The company was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.