Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Core Laboratories N.V. (CLB)?

Is Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) worth your attention right now? The smart money is getting more bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions advanced by 1 recently.

Core Laboratories N.V.(NYSE:CLB)If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are perceived as slow, old investment vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we choose to focus on the crème de la crème of this group, around 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by watching their highest performing investments, we have unearthed a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have beaten the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Equally as key, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of stimuli for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a peek at the key action surrounding Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB).

What have hedge funds been doing with Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 8% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, William von Mueffling’s Cantillon Capital Management had the largest position in Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB), worth close to $102.8 million, accounting for 3.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Jeffrey Vinik of Vinik Asset Management, with a $21.5 million position; 0.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies that are bullish include Andrew Hall’s Astenbeck Capital Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Consequently, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, established the largest position in Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB). Millennium Management had 2.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management also initiated a $1.1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CLB investors: Mike Vranos’s Ellington and Tom Gayner’s Markel Gayner Asset Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time period, Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB). These stocks are Superior Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE:SPN), Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT), Oil States International, Inc. (NYSE:OIS), MDU Resources Group Inc (NYSE:MDU), and Oceaneering International (NYSE:OII). This group of stocks are the members of the oil & gas equipment & services industry and their market caps are similar to CLB’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Superior Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE:SPN) 22 1 2
Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT) 35 6 1
Oil States International, Inc. (NYSE:OIS) 20 1 3
MDU Resources Group Inc (NYSE:MDU) 10 0 4
Oceaneering International (NYSE:OII) 23 1 10

With the returns demonstrated by our tactics, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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