Is C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (CHRW) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

What should a smart C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW) do?

In the financial world, there are dozens of methods investors can use to monitor their holdings. A duo of the most useful 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 trounce the market by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to look at the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are many incentives for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to study the recent info about C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW), one of the biggest logistics companies in the World.

Hedge fund activity in C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW)

Heading into Q3, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -43% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management had the most valuable position in C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW), worth close to $347.9 million, accounting for 1.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On Yacktman Asset Management’s heels is Scout Capital Management, managed by James Crichton and Adam Weiss, which held a $129.5 million position; 2.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management, and Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group.

Due to the fact C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the top-tier hedge fund industry, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers who were dropping their entire stakes last quarter. At the top of the heap, David Blood and Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management dropped the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at about $60.9 million in stock. Jason Capello’s fund, Merchants’ Gate Capital, also sold off its stock, about $46.1 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 12 funds last quarter.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW). These stocks are United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS), Hub Group Inc (NASDAQ:HUBG), UTi Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:UTIW), FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX), and Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD). All of these stocks are in the air delivery & freight services industry and their market caps match CHRW’s market cap.

Using the returns demonstrated by the previously mentioned studies, regular investors should always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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