Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (ATW): Hedge Funds and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

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Is Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW) a good stock to buy now? Investors who are in the know are in a pessimistic mood. The number of long hedge fund positions fell by 6 recently.

Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW)

In the eyes of most market participants, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, old investment vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, we hone in on the elite of this club, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group controls the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by watching their top equity investments, we have unsheathed a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outperformed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of stimuli for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a look at the recent action surrounding Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW).

What does the smart money think about Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -38% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Dreman Value Management, managed by David Dreman, holds the most valuable position in Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW). Dreman Value Management has a $34.1 million position in the stock, comprising 1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell of Arrowstreet Capital, with a $26.4 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include Steven Tananbaum’s GoldenTree Asset Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

Because Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW) has experienced a declination in interest from the smart money, logic holds that there exists a select few hedgies that elected to cut their full holdings at the end of the year. Interestingly, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC said goodbye to the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, totaling about $29.3 million in stock., and Israel Englander of Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $3.9 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 6 funds at the end of the year.

How are insiders trading Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 3 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 Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW). These stocks are Pengrowth Energy Corp (USA) (NYSE:PGH), Rowan Companies PLC (NYSE:RDC), Halcon Resources Corp (NYSE:HK), Enerplus Corp (USA) (NYSE:ERF), and Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN). All of these stocks are in the oil & gas drilling & exploration industry and their market caps match ATW’s market cap.

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