Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) was in 57 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. SLB investors should be aware of a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 57 hedge funds in our database with SLB holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
At the moment, there are many gauges shareholders can use to track their holdings. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a superb margin (see just how much).
Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. There are a variety of motivations for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at the key action regarding Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB).
Hedge fund activity in Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB)
In preparation for this quarter, a total of 57 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.
Of the funds we track, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the most valuable position in Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB), worth close to $581.8 million, comprising 1.5% of its total 13F portfolio. On Fisher Asset Management’s heels is Jason Capello of Merchants’ Gate Capital, with a $219.1 million position; 10.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.
Since Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) has experienced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of hedge funds who were dropping their entire stakes in Q1. Interestingly, Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies we key on, valued at close to $276.2 million in stock.. David Stemerman’s fund, Conatus Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $69.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Insider trading activity in Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB)
Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time period, Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 8 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 Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB). These stocks are FMC Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FTI), Cameron International Corporation (NYSE:CAM), Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI), National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV), and Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL). This group of stocks are in the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps are similar to SLB’s market cap.
