Iconix Brand Group Inc (ICON): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

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Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON)Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. ICON has seen an increase in hedge fund sentiment recently. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with ICON positions at the end of the previous quarter.

According to most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, outdated investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at present, we look at the upper echelon of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the majority of the smart money’s total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their top picks, we have formulated a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of incentives for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action regarding Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON).

How are hedge funds trading Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 38% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Wallace R. Weitz & Co., managed by Wallace Weitz, holds the most valuable position in Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON). Wallace R. Weitz & Co. has a $71.9 million position in the stock, comprising 2.9% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, which held a $4.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Whitney Tilson’s T2 Partners.

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, assembled the most valuable position in Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON). Millennium Management had 2.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also initiated a $1.4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ICON investors: Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.

What have insiders been doing with Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON). These stocks are Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW), Crocs, Inc. (NASDAQ:CROX), Tumi Holdings Inc (NYSE:TUMI), Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ:DECK), and Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO). This group of stocks are the members of the textile – apparel footwear & accessories industry and their market caps are closest to ICON’s market cap.

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