What Hedge Funds Think About Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (CQB)

To the average investor, there are dozens of gauges market participants can use to watch their holdings. Two of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Just as necessary, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

Thus, we’re going to study the latest info about Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB).

What have hedge funds been doing with Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Pentwater Capital Management, managed by Matthew Halbower, holds the biggest position in Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB). Pentwater Capital Management has a $28.1 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Shah Capital Management, managed by Himanshu H. Shah, which held a $15.3 million position; the fund has 14.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management and Nelson Obus’s Wynnefield Capital.

Because Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB) has witnessed a fall in interest from the top-tier hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedge funds that elected to cut their positions entirely at the end of the second quarter. Intriguingly, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management said goodbye to the largest position of the 450+ funds we monitor, totaling an estimated $0.2 million in stock, and Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment Corp was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.1 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Insider trading activity in Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB). These stocks are Le Gaga Holdings Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:GAGA), Limoneira Company (NASDAQ:LMNR), Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY), Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW), and Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO). This group of stocks belong to the farm products industry and their market caps resemble CQB’s market cap.

Using the returns shown by our studies, average investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB) is no exception.

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