What Hedge Funds and Insiders Think About Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (HLX)

At the moment, there are many gauges shareholders can use to track Mr. Market. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see just how much).

Just as useful, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the world of equities. Obviously, there are a variety of reasons for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s analyze the recent info about Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (NYSE:HLX).

What does the smart money think about Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (NYSE:HLX)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management had the largest position in Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (NYSE:HLX), worth close to $24.1 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Sigma Capital Management, managed by SAC Subsidiary, which held a $7.8 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Judging by the fact that Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (NYSE:HLX) has witnessed declining interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, logic holds that there was a specific group of fund managers that elected to cut their entire stakes in Q1. Intriguingly, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management dumped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, comprising about $1.2 million in stock. Arvind Sanger’s fund, GeoSphere Capital Management, also cut its stock, about $0.7 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (NYSE:HLX)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (NYSE:HLX) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (NYSE:HLX). These stocks are CARBO Ceramics Inc. (NYSE:CRR), Energy XXI (Bermuda) Limited (NASDAQ:EXXI), Forum Energy Technologies Inc (NYSE:FET), Lufkin Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:LUFK), and Precision Drilling Corp (USA) (NYSE:PDS). This group of stocks belong to the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps are closest to HLX’s market cap.