This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (COG)

What’s a smart Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) investor to do?

In the financial world, there are dozens of methods shareholders can use to track their holdings. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can outclass the market by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the marketplace. There are a variety of motivations for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to discuss the recent info about Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG).

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG)

How are hedge funds trading Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 43 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 23% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.

According to our 13F database, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the most valuable position in Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG). Citadel Investment Group has a $317.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.5% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Donald Chiboucis of Columbus Circle Investors, with a $106.5 million position; the fund has 0.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Sean Cullinan’s Point State Capital, Dan Loeb’s Third Point and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

Consequently, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, initiated the most valuable position in Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG). Citadel Investment Group had 317.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors also initiated a $106.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Sean Cullinan’s Point State Capital, Dan Loeb’s Third Point, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG)?

Insider buying is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG). These stocks are Talisman Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:TLM), Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN), Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC), Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), and Nexen Inc. (USA) (NYSE:NXY). This group of stocks belong to the independent oil & gas industry and their market caps match COG’s market cap.

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Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Talisman Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:TLM) 21 0 0
Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) 29 0 5
Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) 35 0 13
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) 35 4 4
Nexen Inc. (USA) (NYSE:NXY) 0 0

Using the returns shown by the previously mentioned strategies, regular investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) is an important part of this process.

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