Gordmans Stores, Inc. (GMAN): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

Page 1 of 2

Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN) has experienced an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late.

In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are seen as slow, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we choose to focus on the leaders of this club, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls the majority of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by paying attention to their highest performing stock picks, we have uncovered a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN)

Just as key, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the marketplace. There are plenty of incentives for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action regarding Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN).

How have hedgies been trading Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 40% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Cumberland Associates, managed by Andrew Wallach, holds the biggest position in Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN). Cumberland Associates has a $1.2 million position in the stock, comprising 1.7% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $0.7 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies with similar optimism include Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, Mark N. Diker’s Diker Management and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Diker Management, managed by Mark N. Diker, established the most valuable position in Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN). Diker Management had 0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $0.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Insider trading activity in Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN)

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN). These stocks are Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM), Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (NYSE:PIR), Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (NYSE:RH), Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT), and Kirkland’s, Inc. (NASDAQ:KIRK). All of these stocks are in the home furnishing stores industry and their market caps match GMAN’s market cap.

Page 1 of 2