Institutional investors were not kind to independent shale oil producers in the second quarter, as many cut their stakes in the underperforming sector. Occidental Petroleum Corp. was one of only a handful of companies to see an increase in institutional investor holdings — and its biggest buyer did so to punish Occidental's leadership for its $57 billion takeover of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
According to Form 13-F filings, Occidental saw the number of its shares held by institutional investors increase by 4%, or more than 26 million shares, during the second quarter. The biggest buyer was activist investor Carl Icahn's Icahn Capital LP, which snapped up more than 33 million shares during the quarter. With his 4.4% stake in the company, Icahn launched an insurgency against CEO Vicki Hollub and the rest of Occidental's board of directors, calling their leadership "abysmal" and saying they made a foolish choice in purchasing Occidental.
Dodge & Cox upped its holding of Occidental stock by 24 million shares, or nearly 80%, during the second quarter. The investor now holds approximately 7.3% of Occidental's total stock. Franklin Resources Inc. picked up 11.3 million shares of Occidental, increasing its holdings by more than 110%.

Other investors protested the Anadarko merger by dropping their shares of Occidental in a big way. J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Inc. (SMA, Equity) sold 20.4 million shares of the company, decreasing its stake by more than 91% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP and Capital Research and Mgmt sold 10.1 million and 8.2 million shares of Occidental stock, respectively.
Cimarex Energy Co. was another company that saw institutional investors take a greater stake, increasing by 2.9 million shares, or 2.8%. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC was the big buyer, as it bought into Cimarex to the tune of 1.2 million shares. On the other side of the ledger, Point72 Asset Management LP cut its position by 78%, or 1.3 million shares.
The big loser in terms of institutional investor holdings for the quarter was Encana Corp., which registered a net loss of 88 million shares held by institutional investors during the quarter, or 8.9%. Wellington Management Group led the selloff by dropping 29.4 million shares, followed by Two Sigma Investments LP, which sold 21.2 million shares.
Marathon Oil Corp. saw its ownership by institutional investors fall by 6.8 million shares, or 1%, as two firms sold out of the company entirely. Renaissance Technologies Corp. sold all of its 4.8 million shares while Arrowstreet Capital Ltd. Partnership sold its 3 million shares to eliminate its stake in Marathon.
