Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (PTEN): Insiders Are Buying, Should You?: Pengrowth Energy Corp (USA) (PGH), Rowan Companies PLC (RDC)

Is Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN) worth your attention right now? The best stock pickers are selling. The number of bullish hedge fund bets went down by 8 in recent months.

In the financial world, there are dozens of gauges investors can use to track publicly traded companies. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can beat the S&P 500 by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the financial markets. There are lots of stimuli for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a look at the key action regarding Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN).

Hedge fund activity in Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN)

At year’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -44% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital had the most valuable position in Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN), worth close to $37 million, accounting for 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Kahn Brothers, managed by Irving Kahn, which held a $35 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Judging by the fact that Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN) has experienced declining sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies who sold off their entire stakes at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC sold off the largest investment of all the hedgies we key on, comprising an estimated $29 million in stock.. Mark Travis’s fund, Intrepid Capital Management, also cut its stock, about $26 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 8 funds at the end of the year.

What have insiders been doing with Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN). These stocks are Pengrowth Energy Corp (USA) (NYSE:PGH), Rowan Companies PLC (NYSE:RDC), Halcon Resources Corp (NYSE:HK), Enerplus Corp (USA) (NYSE:ERF), and Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW). This group of stocks belong to the oil & gas drilling & exploration industry and their market caps resemble PTEN’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN) is no exception.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds