Before we spend countless hours researching a company, we like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. This is a necessary first step in our investment process because our research has shown that the elite investors’ consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA).
Is Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA) a worthy investment now? Hedge funds were buying. The number of long hedge fund bets moved up by 5 lately. Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA) was in 27 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic was previously 22. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that SAIA isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings). There were 22 hedge funds in our database with SAIA holdings at the end of June.
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a peek at the recent hedge fund action regarding Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA).
Clint Carlson of Carlson Capital
Do Hedge Funds Think SAIA Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of 27 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 23% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in SAIA over the last 25 quarters. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Select Equity Group, managed by Robert Joseph Caruso, holds the largest position in Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA). Select Equity Group has a $305.7 million position in the stock, comprising 1% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Citadel Investment Group, led by Ken Griffin, holding a $42.4 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism contain Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Renaissance Technologies and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Cartenna Capital allocated the biggest weight to Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA), around 3.96% of its 13F portfolio. Select Equity Group is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 1.03 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to SAIA.
As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Cartenna Capital, managed by Peter Avellone, initiated the biggest position in Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA). Cartenna Capital had $10.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital also initiated a $7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Richard SchimeláandáLawrence Sapanski’s Cinctive Capital Management, Doug Gordon, Jon Hilsabeck and Don Jabro’s Shellback Capital, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA). We will take a look at Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP), Royal Gold, Inc (NASDAQ:RGLD), The Boston Beer Company Inc (NYSE:SAM), Teradata Corporation (NYSE:TDC), Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL), TriNet Group Inc (NYSE:TNET), and Performance Food Group Company (NYSE:PFGC). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to SAIA’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BPOP | 33 | 772508 | 0 |
| RGLD | 21 | 168093 | 1 |
| SAM | 19 | 237876 | -23 |
| TDC | 28 | 583784 | 2 |
| SRCL | 17 | 516772 | -9 |
| TNET | 19 | 462214 | 1 |
| PFGC | 36 | 747258 | -5 |
| Average | 24.7 | 498358 | -4.7 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 24.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $498 million. That figure was $539 million in SAIA’s case. Performance Food Group Company (NYSE:PFGC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for SAIA is 66.3. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 31.1% in 2021 through December 9th and still beat the market by 5.1 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on SAIA as the stock returned 38.6% since the end of Q3 (through 12/9) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
