Hedge Funds Are Buying J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (JBHT)

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT) has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money recently.

To the average investor, there are tons of gauges market participants can use to monitor publicly traded companies. Some of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can outclass the market by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are many incentives for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action encompassing J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT).

How have hedgies been trading J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 38% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital had the biggest position in J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT), worth close to $232.7 million, comprising 1.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On Lone Pine Capital’s heels is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $91.5 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Michael R. Weisberg’s Crestwood Capital Management, Michael Karsch’s Karsch Capital Management and Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management.

Now, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Karsch Capital Management, managed by Michael Karsch, created the most valuable position in J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT). Karsch Capital Management had 33.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Fichthorn’s Dialectic Capital Management also made a $7.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new JBHT positions are Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments, Robert Bishop’s Impala Asset Management, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Insider trading activity in J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time period, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT) has experienced 2 unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT). These stocks are Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN), Con-way Inc (NYSE:CNW), Swift Transportation Co (NYSE:SWFT), Landstar System, Inc. (NASDAQ:LSTR), and Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ:ODFL). All of these stocks are in the trucking industry and their market caps are similar to JBHT’s market cap.

With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT) is no exception.

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