Is Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (PLCE) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Is Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE) ready to rally soon? Money managers are getting less optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund bets fell by 2 lately.

Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE)

To the average investor, there are plenty of metrics market participants can use to analyze Mr. Market. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the financial markets. There are a variety of stimuli for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the latest action regarding Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE).

How are hedge funds trading Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -10% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE). Royce & Associates has a $78.8 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson of Adage Capital Management, with a $74.5 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Jonathan Kolatch’s Redwood Capital Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Since Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE) has faced declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of fund managers who were dropping their entire stakes heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies we track, worth an estimated $9.1 million in call options, and David Keidan of Buckingham Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $8.5 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds heading into Q2.

Insider trading activity in Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE)

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time frame, Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE). These stocks are Stage Stores Inc (NYSE:SSI), Ann Inc (NYSE:ANN), Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB), The Jones Group Inc. (NYSE:JNY), and Aeropostale, Inc. (NYSE:ARO). This group of stocks are the members of the apparel stores industry and their market caps are closest to PLCE’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Stage Stores Inc (NYSE:SSI) 18 0 6
Ann Inc (NYSE:ANN) 19 0 2
Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB) 13 0 2
The Jones Group Inc. (NYSE:JNY) 12 0 3
Aeropostale, Inc. (NYSE:ARO) 20 0 1

With the results exhibited by the aforementioned research, everyday investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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