Now, according to many investors, hedge funds are viewed as overrated, outdated financial tools of a period lost to current times. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open today, Insider Monkey aim at the upper echelon of this club, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group has its hands on the majority of all hedge funds’ total assets, and by paying attention to their highest quality investments, we’ve brought to light a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as useful, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of motivations for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Thus, we’re going to discuss the recent info for Exterran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EXH).
Hedge fund activity in Exterran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EXH)
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -9% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.
Because Exterran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EXH) has experienced declining interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, we can see that there exists a select few hedge funds who sold off their full holdings at the end of the second quarter. Interestingly, Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies we key on, worth an estimated $7.7 million in stock, and Bruce Kovner of Caxton Associates LP was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $5.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds at the end of the second quarter.
How have insiders been trading Exterran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EXH)?
Insider buying made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Exterran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EXH) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Exterran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EXH). These stocks are Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (NYSE:HLX), Lufkin Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:LUFK), Energy XXI (Bermuda) Limited (NASDAQ:EXXI), CARBO Ceramics Inc. (NYSE:CRR), and Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE:HOS). This group of stocks are in the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps are closest to EXH’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (NYSE:HLX) | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Lufkin Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:LUFK) | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| Energy XXI (Bermuda) Limited (NASDAQ:EXXI) | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| CARBO Ceramics Inc. (NYSE:CRR) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE:HOS) | 18 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns shown by our tactics, average investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Exterran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EXH) is an important part of this process.
