Whiting Petroleum Corp (WLL): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) was in 24 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. WLL has seen a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. There were 27 hedge funds in our database with WLL positions at the end of the previous quarter.

At the moment, there are tons of indicators market participants can use to track Mr. Market. Two of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can beat the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of stimuli for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the key action regarding Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL).

What does the smart money think about Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 24 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -11% from the first quarter.

Due to the fact that Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there were a few hedgies that slashed their positions entirely heading into Q2. Intriguingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management cut the largest position of all the hedgies we monitor, valued at close to $100.4 million in stock. Robert Pitts’s fund, Steadfast Capital Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $18 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds heading into Q2.

How are insiders trading Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL). These stocks are Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE:NBR), Penn West Petroleum Ltd (USA) (NYSE:PWE), Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:LNG), Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP), and QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP). All of these stocks are in the oil & gas drilling & exploration industry and their market caps resemble WLL’s market cap.

With the returns shown by the aforementioned time-tested strategies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds