Is Willbros Group Inc (WG) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Willbros Group Inc (NYSE:WG) was in 14 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. WG has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with WG positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are a multitude of methods investors can use to watch stocks. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a significant margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are many reasons for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a gander at the latest action encompassing Willbros Group Inc (NYSE:WG).

Hedge fund activity in Willbros Group Inc (NYSE:WG)

At Q1’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 27% from the first quarter

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Peconic Partners LLC, managed by William Harnisch, assembled the biggest position in Willbros Group Inc (NYSE:WG). Peconic Partners LLC had 2.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors also initiated a $1.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new WG positions are Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

Insider trading activity in Willbros Group Inc (NYSE:WG)

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Willbros Group Inc (NYSE:WG) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Willbros Group Inc (NYSE:WG). These stocks are Compressco Partners LP (NASDAQ:GSJK), WSP Holdings Limited (ADR) (NYSE:WH), Synergy Resources Corp (NYSEAMEX:SYRG), Basic Energy Services, Inc (NYSE:BAS), and Tesco Corporation (USA) (NASDAQ:TESO). All of these stocks are in the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps are closest to WG’s market cap.

With the returns shown by our tactics, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Willbros Group Inc (NYSE:WG) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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