Hedge Funds Are Souring On Chico’s FAS, Inc. (CHS)

Seeing as Chico’s FAS, Inc. (NYSE:CHS) has faced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedgies that decided to sell off their full holdings last quarter. Intriguingly, Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management cut the largest stake of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling about $15.3 million in stock. Gregg Moskowitz’s fund, Interval Partners, also cut its stock, about $12.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 fund last quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Chico’s FAS, Inc. (NYSE:CHS). These stocks are GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ:GWPH), Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA), BlackRock Credit All Inc Trust IV (NYSE:BTZ), and Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:GGAL). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to CHS’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $379 million. That figure was $176 million in CHS’ case. Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand BlackRock Credit All Inc Trust IV (NYSE:BTZ) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Chico’s FAS, Inc. (NYSE:CHS) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ARIA might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.

Disclosure: None