Top Coal Mining Stocks To Buy

#2 Westmoreland Coal Company (NASDAQ:WLB)

 – Investors with Long Positions (December 31): 18

 – Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (December 31): $43.6 million

Moving on, the dismal numbers Westmoreland Coal Company (NASDAQ:WLB) reported for its fiscal 2015 third quarter in October last year caused its stock to end the fourth quarter down by almost 60%. This decline could be the major reason why the aggregate value of investors’ holding in the company declined by 54.4% during the fourth quarter, whereas the ownership of the company among investors covered by us came down only by one during the same time. Nathaniel August‘s Mangrove Partners became the largest shareholder of Westmoreland Coal Company  at the end of December; it increased its stake in the company by 371% to nearly 1.7 million shares during the October-December period. Owing largely to the rally they had in anticipation of the company’s fourth quarter results, shares of  Westmoreland Coal Company (NASDAQ:WLB) currently trade up by over 35% year-to-date. While analysts were expecting the company to report a per share loss of $0.61 on revenue of $369.5 million for the fourth quarter, it declared a per share loss of $6.04 on revenue of $371.37 million.

#1 CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX)

 – Investors with Long Positions (December 31): 29

 – Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (December 31): $861.28 million

Despite its stock declining by 18.6% during the fourth quarter, CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX) still emerged as the most popular coal mining stock among the investors tracked by us at the end of the fourth quarter. Similar to BHP Billiton, CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX) is also not a pure coal mining company as it also operates in the oil and natural gas industry, however, since they both run large coal mining operations we have included them in this list. The number of investors tracked by us with long positions in the stock increased by four during the fourth quarter, but the aggregate value of their positions slid by $32.7 million during the same period. Billionaire Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group raised its stake in the company eightfold to 2.98 million shares during the fourth quarter. The Street has shown confidence in several steps taken by CONSOL Energy in the past few months to reduce its capital expenditure, which is perhaps why its stock has appreciated by 56% so far this year. On February 29, the company announced that it had agreed to sell its coal assets in Virginia to Coronado IV for $420 million and also informed its investors that it will suspend paying quarterly dividends.

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