Is GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (GLF) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

In the eyes of many investors, hedge funds are viewed as delayed, old financial tools of a forgotten age. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds in operation currently, this site aim at the moguls of this group, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group oversees most of the hedge fund industry’s total assets, and by tracking their highest performing stock picks, we’ve deciphered a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Just as necessary, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the financial markets. There are lots of reasons for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if you know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s study the newest info about GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF).

How have hedgies been trading GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 14% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

According to our 13F database, Michael Price’s MFP Investors had the biggest position in GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF), worth close to $27.8 million, comprising 3.7% of its total 13F portfolio. On MFP Investors’s heels is Brian Taylor of Pine River Capital Management, with a $6.2 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

As aggregate interest spiked, particular hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. MFP Investors, managed by Michael Price, initiated the biggest position in GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF). MFP Investors had 27.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management also initiated a $6.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

What have insiders been doing with GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF). These stocks are Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE:HOS), Newpark Resources Inc (NYSE:NR), TETRA Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:TTI), Exterran Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ:EXLP), and C&J Energy Services Inc (NYSE:CJES). This group of stocks are in the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps are similar to GLF’s market cap.

Using the results explained by Insider Monkey’s research, average investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:GLF) is an important part of this process.

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