Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (BWS)?

Is it smart to be bullish on Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS)?

At the moment, there are plenty of metrics investors can use to analyze stocks. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can beat the broader indices by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as crucial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the financial markets. Obviously, there are plenty of incentives for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS)

What’s more, it’s important to study the latest info about Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS).

How are hedge funds trading Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

According to our 13F database, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the most valuable position in Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS). AQR Capital Management has a $15.6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. On AQR Capital Management’s heels is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $12 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.

Because Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS) has witnessed dropping sentiment from the smart money’s best and brightest, logic holds that there were a few hedgies that slashed their full holdings in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital cut the largest investment of all the hedgies we track, totaling an estimated $1.1 million in stock, and Matthew Tewksbury of Stevens Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.3 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Insider trading activity in Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, 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 Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS). These stocks are Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM), United Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNTD), Titan Machinery Inc. (NASDAQ:TITN), and Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ). This group of stocks are in the specialty retail, other industry and their market caps are similar to BWS’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) 18 0 0
American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM) 10 0 0
United Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNTD) 11 0 0
Titan Machinery Inc. (NASDAQ:TITN) 13 0 0
Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) 11 0 0

Using the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s analyses, regular investors should always track hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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