Is Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN) going to take off soon? The smart money is getting less optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund bets dropped by 3 in recent months.
In the financial world, there are tons of gauges shareholders can use to monitor the equity markets. A couple of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Just as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are plenty of motivations for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action regarding Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN).
Hedge fund activity in Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN)
At year’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -18% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.
Of the funds we track, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital had the largest position in Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN), worth close to $112.2 million, comprising 0.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $80 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, William Harnisch’s Peconic Partners LLC and Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital.
Due to the fact that Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN) has faced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there is a sect of hedge funds that decided to sell off their full holdings last quarter. Interestingly, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC sold off the largest investment of the 450+ funds we watch, comprising about $119.8 million in stock.. Jim Simons’s fund, Renaissance Technologies, also sold off its stock, about $13.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds last quarter.
How are insiders trading Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN)?
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time period, Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN). These stocks are American Railcar Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARII), Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU), Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR), Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB), and Guangshen Railway Co. Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:GSH). This group of stocks are in the railroads industry and their market caps resemble TRN’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| American Railcar Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARII) | 17 | 0 | 1 |
| Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU) | 9 | 0 | 6 |
| Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR) | 19 | 1 | 5 |
| Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB) | 16 | 0 | 19 |
| Guangshen Railway Co. Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:GSH) | 1 | 0 | 0 |
With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s tactics, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN) is no exception.
