This Metric Says You Are Smart to Sell Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB)

Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently.

At the moment, there are dozens of methods market participants can use to watch the equity markets. A couple of the most underrated 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 top money managers can outperform the broader indices by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as important, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are lots of incentives for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action surrounding Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB).

What does the smart money think about Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB)?

At year’s end, a total of 55 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -2% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the most valuable position in Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB), worth close to $537 million, accounting for 1.5% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global, with a $276 million position; the fund has 1.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include Jason Capello’s Merchants’ Gate Capital, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management.

Due to the fact that Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) has experienced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there were a few fund managers who were dropping their full holdings last quarter. Interestingly, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital cut the largest stake of all the hedgies we monitor, totaling about $464 million in stock., and John Armitage of Egerton Capital Limited was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $157 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds last quarter.

How have insiders been trading Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) is no exception.

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