First Sanctions and Now Its Own Shareholders: Seadrill Ltd (SDRL) Just Can’t Get A Break

Generally hedge funds are holding their ground as far as Seadrill Ltd (NYSE:SDRL) is concerned. Among over 700 hedge funds that we track, 18 had an aggregate investment of $95.49 million in the company at the end June as compared to 18 funds with $121.10 million a quarter earlier. Among these investors, Jim Simons‘ renowned quant fund Renaissance Technologies heads the list holding some 2.74 million shares, after a 70% hike during the second trimester. Other prominent shareholders of Seadrill Ltd (NYSE:SDRL) include Luminus Management, led by Jonathan Barrett and Paul Segal, and Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management, which own 1.38 million shares and 972,900 shares as of the end of June, respectively.

A number of investors were also bearish on the company during the quarter, including Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group that reduced its stake in the company by 82% to about 651,100 shares.

With a pending lawsuit that the company has every intention of fighting, but is still to quantify its costs, a struggling oil market and ofcourse the frozen deal with Rosneft itself, are strong bearish signals for any investor to jump in on Seadrill Ltd (NYSE:SDRL)’s wagon at the moment. And smart money that are long Seadril are right to be taking their time with the company awaiting some developments that could indicate which direction to take.

Disclosure: None