Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Core Laboratories N.V. (CLB)?

Page 1 of 2

Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) was in 12 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. CLB has seen a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. There were 17 hedge funds in our database with CLB positions at the end of the previous quarter.

Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB)

To most investors, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, old financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the upper echelon of this club, close to 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees most of the smart money’s total asset base, and by watching their best investments, we have unearthed a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat 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 outclassed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see the details here).

Just as important, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are lots of incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a look at the recent action surrounding Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB).

How have hedgies been trading Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -29% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Cantillon Capital Management, managed by William von Mueffling, holds the largest position in Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB). Cantillon Capital Management has a $42 million position in the stock, comprising 1.6% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Rob Citrone of Discovery Capital Management, with a $24.8 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Andrew Hall’s Astenbeck Capital Management.

Seeing as Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) has witnessed a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there exists a select few money managers that decided to sell off their full holdings in Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management dropped the largest stake of all the hedgies we track, valued at about $29 million in stock.. Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s fund, LMR Partners, also said goodbye to its stock, about $6.6 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 5 funds in Q4.

What have insiders been doing with Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB). These stocks are Superior Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE:SPN), Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT), Oil States International, Inc. (NYSE:OIS), MDU Resources Group Inc (NYSE:MDU), and Oceaneering International (NYSE:OII). This group of stocks are in the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps resemble CLB’s market cap.

Page 1 of 2