Five Apparel Companies To Buy Now

#3 VF Corp (NYSE:VFC)

-Hedge Funds with Long Positions (as of September 30): 34

-Aggregate Value of Hedge Funds’ Holdings (as of September 30): $1.2 Billion

Shares of VF Corp (NYSE:VFC) have seen a gradual decline since August and now trade down by more than 16% year-to-date. Interestingly, during the third quarter, while two fewer funds reported stakes in the company, the aggregate value of their holdings rose by $70 million. Recently on December 14 VF Corp (NYSE:VFC) announced that it is extending its Third Way manufacturing program to strategic suppliers in sub-Saharan Africa. Billionaire David E. Shaw‘s firm D.E. Shaw increased its stake in the company by 50% to over 1 million shares during the third quarter.

#2 PVH Corp (NYSE:PVH)

-Hedge Funds with Long Positions (as of September 30): 37

-Aggregate Value of Hedge Funds’ Holdings (as of September 30): $1.24 billion

Owing to the decline its shares have had since the start of September, PVH Corp (NYSE:PVH) has lost more than 40% of its market capitalization this year. Moreover, shares of the company have slumped more than 20% this month after it reported weak third quarter numbers and issued disappointing earnings guidance. PVH Corp (NYSE:PVH) reported EPS of $2.47 on revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, whereas analysts had expected the company to report EPS of $2.66 on revenue of $2.16 billion. Currently the company is trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 11 and price-to-book multiple of 1.37, which is an attractive valuation compared to its industry peers. Ken Heebner‘s Capital Growth Management initiated a stake in PVH Corp during the third quarter by purchasing 755,000 shares.

#1 Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI)

-Hedge Funds with Long Positions (as of September 30): 46

-Aggregate Value of Hedge Funds’ Holdings (as of September 30): $1.06 billion

Finally, even after declining by more than 20% from  its peak of almost $110 in July, Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI) is still trading in the green year-to-date. Although the number of funds that held a stake in the company remained constant during the third quarter, the aggregate value of their holdings declined by $288 million. Nevertheless, the holdings of these funds in aggregate accounted for 22.20% of Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI)’s stock at the end of September. David Gallo‘s Vallinor Management LLC doubled its stake in Carter’s to 1.57 million shares during the third quarter and became the largest shareholder of the company among the funds tracked by us at the end of September after Jonathan Auerbach‘s Hound Partners which held over 3.4 million shares.

Disclosure: none