Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) has had a good 2013. If you’re reading this chances are you know that. But any value-concious investor will always wonder about the multiples. Is there a chance it’s too expensive now, and may be a good candidate to take profits? Let’s see.
In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of metrics market participants can use to analyze publicly traded companies. A duo of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a superb margin (see just how much).
Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are many incentives for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
Furthermore, let’s discuss the latest info surrounding Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL).
How are hedge funds trading Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)?
At Q2’s end, a total of 62 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -2% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.
As Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) has witnessed bearish sentiment from upper-tier hedge fund managers, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that elected to cut their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, George Soros’s Soros Fund Management dumped the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we track, totaling close to $33.1 million in stock, and Yale M. Fergang and Robert W. Medway of Royal Capital was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $24.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds last quarter.
Insider trading activity in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)
Insider buying made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL). These stocks are FMC Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FTI), Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB), Cameron International Corporation (NYSE:CAM), Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI), and National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV). This group of stocks belong to the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps are similar to HAL’s market cap.
