Should You Avoid Clean Energy Fuels Corp (CLNE)?

Is Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE) ready to rally soon? The best stock pickers are becoming less confident. The number of bullish hedge fund positions went down by 3 recently.

At the moment, there are tons of gauges shareholders can use to track their holdings. Two of the best 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 elite investment managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the marketplace. Obviously, there are a number of motivations for a bullish insider to cut 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 valuable potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action encompassing Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE).

How have hedgies been trading Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -33% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, holds the biggest position in Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE). D E Shaw has a $12.1 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $5.5 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Due to the fact that Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there is a sect of funds that slashed their full holdings last quarter. Intriguingly, David Gallo’s Valinor Management LLC said goodbye to the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we track, worth close to $9.2 million in stock., and Sander Gerber of Hudson Bay Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds last quarter.

Insider trading activity in Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time frame, Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE). These stocks are Niska Gas Storage Partners LLC (NYSE:NKA), Laclede Group Inc (NYSE:LG), Summit Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:SMLP), PAA Natural Gas Storage, L.P. (NYSE:PNG), and Northwest Natural Gas Co (NYSE:NWN). This group of stocks are the members of the gas utilities industry and their market caps are similar to CLNE’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by our studies, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE) is no exception.

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