Is Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) a good investment?
At the moment, there are many indicators shareholders can use to monitor their holdings. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a significant margin (see just how much).
Just as crucial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are plenty of stimuli for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if you understand where to look (learn more here).
Thus, we’re going to discuss the newest info for Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD).
How have hedgies been trading Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -45% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.
When using filings from the hedgies we track, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC had the biggest position in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD), worth close to $24.6 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $8.9 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors.
As Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) has experienced bearish sentiment from upper-tier hedge fund managers, we can see that there is a sect of fund managers that elected to cut their entire stakes heading into Q2. At the top of the heap, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management dumped the biggest position of the 450+ funds we key on, totaling close to $6.3 million in stock, and John Fichthorn of Dialectic Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $4.3 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 9 funds heading into Q2.
How have insiders been trading Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)?
Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD). These stocks are Swift Transportation Co (NYSE:SWFT), Con-way Inc (NYSE:CNW), Universal Truckload Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:UACL), Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN), and Knight Transportation (NYSE:KNX). This group of stocks are in the trucking industry and their market caps resemble HTLD’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Swift Transportation Co (NYSE:SWFT) | 26 | 0 | 0 |
| Con-way Inc (NYSE:CNW) | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| Universal Truckload Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:UACL) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Knight Transportation (NYSE:KNX) | 16 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s analyses, average investors should always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) is an important part of this process.
