Is Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD) a buy?
In the eyes of many market players, hedge funds are seen as useless, old investment vehicles of a period lost to current times. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open currently, Insider Monkey aim at the aristocrats of this group, about 525 funds. It is widely held that this group controls the majority of the smart money’s total assets, and by monitoring their highest performing picks, we’ve revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (see all of our picks from August).
Just as crucial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the marketplace. There are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).
What’s more, it’s important to discuss the recent info about Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD).
How are hedge funds trading Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD)?
At Q2’s end, a total of 32 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -6% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, International Value Advisers, managed by Charles de Vaulx, holds the largest position in Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD). International Value Advisers has a $248.2 million position in the stock, comprising 6.6% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Robert Pohly of Samlyn Capital, with a $65.5 million position; 1.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Since Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD) has faced dropping sentiment from the smart money’s best and brightest, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of fund managers that decided to sell off their full holdings in Q1. Intriguingly, Jason Capello’s Merchants’ Gate Capital dropped the biggest investment of all the hedgies we key on, valued at an estimated $89.3 million in call options.. Daniel S. Och’s fund, OZ Management, also dumped its call options., about $9 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds in Q1.
Insider trading activity in Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD)
Insider buying made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD). These stocks are Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD), Hub Group Inc (NASDAQ:HUBG), UTi Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:UTIW), FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX), and C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW). All of these stocks are in the air delivery & freight services industry and their market caps are closest to EXPD’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Hub Group Inc (NASDAQ:HUBG) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| UTi Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:UTIW) | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW) | 16 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results demonstrated by our research, regular investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD) is no exception.
