Hedge Funds Are Dumping Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)

Is Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) a healthy stock for your portfolio? The best stock pickers are in a bearish mood. The number of long hedge fund bets dropped by 4 lately.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are a multitude of methods market participants can use to track publicly traded companies. Some of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are plenty of reasons for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at the key action surrounding Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES).

Hedge fund activity in Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)

In preparation for this year, a total of 35 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -10% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Relational Investors, managed by Ralph V. Whitworth, holds the most valuable position in Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES). Relational Investors has a $587 million position in the stock, comprising 11.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Perry Capital, managed by Richard Perry, which held a $114 million position; 11.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and Paul Singer’s Elliott Management.

Since Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) has faced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there were a few fund managers that slashed their full holdings at the end of the year. At the top of the heap, Jonathon Jacobson’s Highfields Capital Management cut the biggest position of all the hedgies we key on, valued at an estimated $136 million in stock.. Jonathon Jacobson’s fund, Highfields Capital Management, also cut its call options., about $47 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds at the end of the year.

How have insiders been trading Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) has seen 8 unique insiders buying, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results shown by the aforementioned tactics, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) is an important part of this process.

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