Hedge Funds Are Dumping Shoe Carnival, Inc. (SCVL)

Seeing as Shoe Carnival, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCVL) has experienced a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of funds who sold off their entire stakes in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital dropped the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth about $3.1 million in stock, and Mark Lee’s Forest Hill Capital was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $2.6 million worth of stock. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 9 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Shoe Carnival, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCVL) but similarly valued. These stocks are UTi Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:UTIW), Star Gas Partners, L.P. (NYSE:SGU), Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY), and Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE:HOS). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to SCVL’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $125 million. That figure was $85 million in SCVL’s case. Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE:HOS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Star Gas Partners, L.P. (NYSE:SGU) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Shoe Carnival, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCVL) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard HOS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.