Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (MMP): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Is Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:MMP) a buy right now? Money managers are turning less bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of gauges investors can use to monitor the equity markets. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a significant margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if “monkeys” understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the latest action surrounding Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:MMP).

How are hedge funds trading Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:MMP)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, John Osterweis’s Osterweis Capital Management had the biggest position in Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:MMP), worth close to $81.4 million, accounting for 3.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On Osterweis Capital Management’s heels is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $37.5 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Michael Messner’s Seminole Capital (Investment Mgmt) and Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:MMP)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:MMP) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:MMP). These stocks are Pembina Pipeline Corp (NYSE:PBA), Energy Transfer Partners LP (NYSE:ETP), El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. (NYSE:EPB), Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (NYSE:KMR), and Oneok Partners LP (NYSE:OKS). This group of stocks belong to the oil & gas pipelines industry and their market caps are closest to MMP’s market cap.