Is Energen Corporation (EGN) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

In the financial world, there are many metrics investors can use to monitor stocks. A couple of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can beat the market by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the financial markets. There are many reasons for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to examine the newest info for Energen Corporation (NYSE:EGN).

What have hedge funds been doing with Energen Corporation (NYSE:EGN)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, International Value Advisers, managed by Charles de Vaulx, holds the most valuable position in Energen Corporation (NYSE:EGN). International Value Advisers has a $83.9 million position in the stock, comprising 2.2% of its 13F portfolio. On International Value Advisers’s heels is Soros Fund Management, managed by George Soros, which held a $68 million position; 0.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Judging by the fact that Energen Corporation (NYSE:EGN) has experienced bearish sentiment from the smart money’s best and brightest, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few fund managers that elected to cut their positions entirely at the end of the second quarter. Intriguingly, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management said goodbye to the largest stake of all the hedgies we key on, worth an estimated $57.2 million in stock, and Sean Cullinan of Point State Capital was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $28.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading Energen Corporation (NYSE:EGN)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Energen Corporation (NYSE:EGN) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Energen Corporation (NYSE:EGN). These stocks are WPX Energy Inc (NYSE:WPX), Kosmos Energy Ltd (NYSE:KOS), Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR), Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS), and SM Energy Co. (NYSE:SM). All of these stocks are in the independent oil & gas industry and their market caps are similar to EGN’s market cap.