Is Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN) A Good Stock To Buy?

A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN).

Is Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) a healthy stock for your portfolio? Investors who are in the know are in a bullish mood. The number of long hedge fund positions rose by 4 in recent months. JWN was in 30 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 26 hedge funds in our database with JWN positions at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ), News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA), and AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) to gather more data points.

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Now, let’s take a look at the latest action encompassing Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN).

How have hedgies been trading Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN)?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 30 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, an increase of 15% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, John W. Rogers’s Ariel Investments has the biggest position in Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN), worth close to $58.7 million and corresponding to 0.7% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Alyeska Investment Group, led by Anand Parekh, holding a $46.5 million position; the fund has 0.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions comprise John Tompkins’s Tyvor Capital, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Alyeska Investment Group, managed by Anand Parekh, assembled the most valuable position in Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) during the quarter, followed by John Tompkins’s Tyvor Capital, that initiated a $32.4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new JWN investors: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Ross Margolies’s Stelliam Investment Management, and Don Morgan’s Brigade Capital.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) but similarly valued. These stocks are Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ), News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA), AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER), and American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to JWN’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 27 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $906 million. That figure was a minor $282 million in JWN’s case. Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) 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 DPZ might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: none.