New York (HedgeCo.net) – Declining oil prices have hurt the energy sector for almost a year and a half now as crude has fallen from $107.50 a barrel to below $35 a barrel last week. The bear market in oil has obviously hurt the energy sector with the Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLE) falling almost 40% in the last 18 months.

While the performance of the XLE has been miserable, there are energy companies that have suffered much worse declines and some of those companies were favorites of hedge fund managers. A recent article from TheStreet.com highlighted four stocks in particular that have “burned hedge fund gurus”. The article listed Cheniere Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Consol Energy and SunEdison and it also pointed out that these four stocks were favorites of Carl Icahn and David Einhorn.

Looking at each of the stocks over the last 18 months, we see that from July 1, 2o14 through the close on Tuesday, the average loss of these four stocks is 73.59%. Cheniere has performed the best of the four, but it is still down almost 50% in the last year and a half. The other three are all down over 75% during this timeframe.

Rick Pendergraft
Research Analyst
HedgeCoVest