Hanesbrands Inc. (HBI), Nike Inc (NKE): Scopus Asset Management Betting on Consumer Discretionary Stocks

Scopus slashed the stake of its second largest equity holding, Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE:HBI), by 13% during the first quarter to 3.75 million shares valued at $125.68 million. The stake accounted for 2.5% of the investment firm’s portfolio value. Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE:HBI) has appreciated by 11.47% so far this year. This compares favorably with the Apparel stores industry, which has gained 5.55% during the same period. The $12.23 billion owner of brands such as Hanes, Champion, Playtex, Bali, Just My Size, Wonderbra and Gear for Sports missed estimates for its first quarter financial results as its EPS of $0.22 came in $0.01 below estimates and revenues of $1.21 billion were also $20 million lower than anticipated. Besides Scopus, another prominent stockholder of the company is John Shapiro‘s Chieftain Capital, which held 2.27 million shares of Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE:HBI) according to its latest filing.

The third spot was taken by the $87.83 billion global manufacturer of athletic footwear, apparel and accessories, Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE). After acquiring an additional 627,557 shares of the company during the first quarter, Scopus’ holding climbed to 1.25 million shares valued at $125.67 million. Although Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE)’s fiscal third quarter 2015 EPS of $0.89 beat estimates by $0.05, revenues of $7.46 billion came in $160 million lighter than expected. The company performed particularly well at increasing traffic and conversions through mobile devices, which for the first time in Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE)’s history exceeded desktop traffic. The achievement of this milestone was made possible by the newly introduced SNKRS app. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, the renowned managed futures fund, held 1.54 million shares of the company at the end of the fourth quarter.

Disclosure: None