Why Are These 5 Stocks Deep in the Red Today?

Although the S&P 500 is up by 0.36%, shares of Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CPXX), Ascena Retail Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASNA), Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN), Chico’s FAS, Inc. (NYSE:CHS), and Boot Barn Holdings Inc (NYSE:BOOT) are deep in the red this afternoon. Let’s examine the events that have caused investors to sell these stocks and see what the world’s greatest investors think of each of them.

Our research determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor to beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

A receding tide sinks all boats, as Ascena Retail Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASNA) shares are down by roughly 3%, Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) shares have retreated by 2.3%, and Chico’s FAS, Inc. (NYSE:CHS) shares have shrunk by 2.7%, all primarily due to disappointing sales data from peer Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS). For the month of March, Gap reported net sales of $1.43 billion versus the net sales of $1.53 billion that it reported for March of 2015. The weak results translate to a roughly 6% decline in comparable sales and sent Gap shares down by more than 13% today. Investors fear that the weak demand for Gap’s products could translate to weaker demand for the broader industry as a whole.

The number of elite funds in our database invested in Ascena Retail Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASNA) rose by three to 26 during the fourth quarter. Alexander Medina Seaver‘s Stadium Capital Management was the largest shareholder of the stock among those 26 investment firms, holding 9.23 million shares. Meanwhile, 29 funds held $208.55 million worth of Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) shares at the end of the fourth quarter. That marked a large decline from 38 funds with $840.88 million in shares at the end of the third quarter. Lastly, the number of elite funds long Chico’s FAS, Inc. (NYSE:CHS) stood at 22 at the end of December, down by over the fourth quarter. Those funds, which included Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies and Cliff Asness‘ AQR Capital Management, owned 14.9% of the Chico’s float.

On the next page we examine why Boot Barn Holdings and Celator Pharmaceuticals are in the red this afternoon.