Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS): 2 Important Metrics To Keep An Eye On

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund interest lately.

In today’s marketplace, there are many gauges market participants can use to track publicly traded companies. Two of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can trounce the market by a solid margin (see just how much).

Just as important, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are lots of stimuli for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action encompassing Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS).

How have hedgies been trading Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 13% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

Of the funds we track, Michael Blitzer’s Kingstown Capital Management had the largest position in Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), worth close to $19.6 million, comprising 3.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors, with a $15.8 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Michael Price’s MFP Investors, Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp and Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack’s Nantahala Capital Management.

Consequently, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Nantahala Capital Management, managed by Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack, created the largest position in Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS). Nantahala Capital Management had 4.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management also made a $3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital, Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management, and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS). These stocks are Francesca’s Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:FRAN), EZCORP Inc (NASDAQ:EZPW), Office Depot Inc (NYSE:ODP), OfficeMax Inc (NYSE:OMX), and Finish Line Inc (NASDAQ:FINL). All of these stocks are in the specialty retail, other industry and their market caps resemble BKS’s market cap.

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s research, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) applies perfectly to this mantra.

See the 7 most bullish money managers: