North American Energy Partners Inc. (USA) (NOA): Should You Buy In?

Is North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA) an outstanding investment now? Prominent investors are getting less optimistic. The number of long hedge fund bets stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience.

In today’s marketplace, there are plenty of methods shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. A couple of the most useful 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 hedge fund managers can outclass the market by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Obviously, there are many reasons for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a look at the latest action surrounding North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA).

Hedge fund activity in North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA)

Heading into 2013, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Phil Falcone’s Harbinger had the biggest position in North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA), worth close to $23.9 million, comprising 1.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Richard Perry of Perry Capital, with a $15.6 million position; 0.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that are bullish include J. Carlo Cannell’s Cannell Capital, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

How are insiders trading North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA). These stocks are Dawson Geophysical Company (NASDAQ:DWSN), Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS), TGC Industries Inc (NASDAQ:TGE), Bolt Technology Corp. (NASDAQ:BOLT), and Cal Dive International, Inc. (NYSE:DVR). This group of stocks are the members of the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps match NOA’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned studies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA) is an important part of this process.

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