How Big Lots, Inc. (BIG) Stacks Up To Its Peers

Seeing as Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE:BIG) has faced no change in interest from hedge fund managers, we must take a look at a select few hedge funds that elected to cut their full holdings in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Doug Gordon, Jon Hilsabeck and Don Jabro’s Shellback Capital dropped the biggest position of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, totaling about $7.5 million in stock, and David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $4 million worth of BIG shares. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE:BIG). We will take a look at Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY), Media General, Inc. (NYSE:MEG), J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF), and Dril-Quip, Inc. (NYSE:DRQ). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to BIG’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $248 million. That figure was $162 million in BIG’s case. Media General, Inc. (NYSE:MEG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE:BIG) 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 MEG might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.

Disclosure: None