Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (ARP): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It But Hedge Funds Love It

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In the eyes of many of your peers, hedge funds are viewed as overrated, old investment tools of a forgotten age. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open currently, Insider Monkey aim at the top tier of this club, close to 525 funds. It is widely held that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their highest quality equity investments, we’ve identified a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started 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).

Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ARP)

Equally as useful, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the marketplace. Obviously, there are a number of motivations for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to examine the recent info about Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ARP).

What does the smart money think about Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ARP)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 9% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

According to our 13F database, Omega Advisors, managed by Leon Cooperman, holds the biggest position in Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ARP). Omega Advisors has a $91.6 million position in the stock, comprising 1.4% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Senator Investment Group, managed by Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin, which held a $23.1 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Wayne Cooperman’s Cobalt Capital Management, Remy Trafelet’s Trafelet Capital and Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital.

As industrywide interest increased, particular hedge funds have jumped into Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ARP) headfirst. Omega Advisors, managed by Leon Cooperman, created the most valuable position in Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ARP). Omega Advisors had 91.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors also made a $91.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ARP investors: Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group, Wayne Cooperman’s Cobalt Capital Management, and Remy Trafelet’s Trafelet Capital.

How are insiders trading Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ARP)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ARP) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero 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 Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ARP). These stocks are Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE:HPY), ABM Industries, Inc. (NYSE:ABM), NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP), TeleTech Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEC), and Quad/Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:QUAD). This group of stocks belong to the business services industry and their market caps resemble ARP’s market cap.

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