Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Murphy Oil Corporation (MUR)

Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) was in 23 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. MUR has seen a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. There were 25 hedge funds in our database with MUR positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are a multitude of methods market participants can use to watch the equity markets. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outpace the market by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. There are plenty of stimuli for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action regarding Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR).

What have hedge funds been doing with Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 23 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -8% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Southeastern Asset Management, managed by Mason Hawkins, holds the most valuable position in Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR). Southeastern Asset Management has a $668 million position in the stock, comprising 3% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Third Point, managed by Dan Loeb, which held a $159.3 million position; the fund has 3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Seeing as Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) has experienced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of fund managers that elected to cut their full holdings at the end of the first quarter. Interestingly, John Paulson’s Paulson & Co dumped the largest stake of the 450+ funds we track, valued at an estimated $104.2 million in stock.. Eric Mindich’s fund, Eton Park Capital, also cut its stock, about $42 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds at the end of the first quarter.

How have insiders been trading Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 13 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR). These stocks are Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO), Access Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:ACMP), Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO), HollyFrontier Corp (NYSE:HFC), and Ultrapar Participacoes SA (ADR) (NYSE:UGP). This group of stocks are in the oil & gas refining & marketing industry and their market caps are similar to MUR’s market cap.