Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Cimarex Energy Co (XEC)?

Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE:XEC) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund interest lately.

At the moment, there are many gauges investors can use to watch their holdings. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top investment managers can outperform the market by a solid amount (see just how much).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are many stimuli for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Now, let’s take a look at the key action regarding Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE:XEC).

How have hedgies been trading Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE:XEC)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 5% from one quarter earlier.

Consequently, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. First Pacific Advisors LLC, managed by Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick, created the most valuable position in Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE:XEC). First Pacific Advisors LLC had 33.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital also made a $12.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

What have insiders been doing with Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE:XEC)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE:XEC) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE:XEC). These stocks are Linn Energy LLC (NASDAQ:LINE), National Fuel Gas Co. (NYSE:NFG), Baytex Energy Corp (USA) (NYSE:BTE), Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE:DNR), and Plains Exploration & Production Company (NYSE:PXP). All of these stocks are in the independent oil & gas industry and their market caps match XEC’s market cap.