Is Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW) a buy right now? Money managers are turning bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets improved by 1 in recent months.
In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of gauges shareholders can use to track publicly traded companies. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the stock market universe. There are lots of incentives for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
Now, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action encompassing Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW).
How have hedgies been trading Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 20% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.
Of the funds we track, Cardinal Capital, managed by Amy Minella, holds the most valuable position in Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW). Cardinal Capital has a $20.1 million position in the stock, comprising 1.3% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which held a $2.8 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names have jumped into Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW) headfirst. D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, assembled the biggest position in Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW). D E Shaw had 0.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
What have insiders been doing with Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time period, Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW). These stocks are Adecoagro SA (NYSE:AGRO), Limoneira Company (NASDAQ:LMNR), Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO), Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB), and Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY). This group of stocks belong to the farm products industry and their market caps match CVGW’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Adecoagro SA (NYSE:AGRO) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Limoneira Company (NASDAQ:LMNR) | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO) | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB) | 13 | 1 | 4 |
| Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
With the results shown by our research, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW) is an important part of this process.
