Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA) has seen an increase in hedge fund interest recently.
In today’s marketplace, there are many metrics market participants can use to track the equity markets. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a significant margin (see just how much).
Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. 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 clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a glance at the latest action surrounding Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA).
Hedge fund activity in Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA)
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 8% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.
Of the funds we track, Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital had the largest position in Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA), worth close to $16.1 million, comprising 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, which held a $11.9 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors.
As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Gotham Asset Management, managed by Joel Greenblatt, created the most valuable position in Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA). Gotham Asset Management had 1.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $0.5 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new SAIA position is Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors.
How have insiders been trading Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA)?
Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA). These stocks are Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD), Marten Transport, Ltd (NASDAQ:MRTN), Celadon Group, Inc. (NYSE:CGI), Universal Truckload Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:UACL), and Echo Global Logistics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECHO). This group of stocks are the members of the trucking industry and their market caps resemble SAIA’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) | 20 | 0 | 1 |
| Marten Transport, Ltd (NASDAQ:MRTN) | 9 | 0 | 2 |
| Celadon Group, Inc. (NYSE:CGI) | 10 | 1 | 5 |
| Universal Truckload Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:UACL) | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Echo Global Logistics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECHO) | 9 | 1 | 3 |
With the returns exhibited by the aforementioned strategies, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Saia Inc (NASDAQ:SAIA) is an important part of this process.
