Hedge Funds Are Dumping Joe’s Jeans Inc (JOEZ)

Is Joe’s Jeans Inc (NASDAQ:JOEZ) the right pick for your portfolio? Prominent investors are in a bearish mood. The number of long hedge fund positions stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience

According to most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, old financial tools of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we choose to focus on the upper echelon of this club, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group has its hands on the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their highest performing investments, we have figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are many motivations for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action encompassing Joe’s Jeans Inc (NASDAQ:JOEZ).

How have hedgies been trading Joe’s Jeans Inc (NASDAQ:JOEZ)?

At year’s end, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

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Because Joe’s Jeans Inc (NASDAQ:JOEZ) has faced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedgies who sold off their entire stakes in Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors dropped the largest stake of the 450+ funds we track, totaling an estimated $0.4 million in stock.. D. E. Shaw’s fund, D E Shaw, also sold off its stock, about $0 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading Joe’s Jeans Inc (NASDAQ:JOEZ)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time frame, Joe’s Jeans Inc (NASDAQ:JOEZ) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Joe’s Jeans Inc (NASDAQ:JOEZ). These stocks are American Apparel Inc. (NYSEAMEX:APP), Crown Crafts, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWS), Superior Uniform Group Inc (NASDAQ:SGC), China Xiniya Fashion Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:XNY), and Delta Apparel, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:DLA). All of these stocks are in the textile – apparel clothing industry and their market caps are closest to JOEZ’s market cap.

Company Name	# of Hedge Funds	# of Insiders Buying	# of Insiders Selling
American Apparel Inc. (NYSEAMEX:APP)	3	0	0
Crown Crafts, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWS)	4	0	3
Superior Uniform Group Inc (NASDAQ:SGC)	1	0	0
China Xiniya Fashion Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:XNY)	4	0	0
Delta Apparel, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:DLA)	2	0	0

With the returns demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Joe’s Jeans Inc (NASDAQ:JOEZ) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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