Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months.

At the moment, there are dozens of metrics shareholders can use to track stocks. Some of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can beat their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of stimuli for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the key action regarding Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY).

How have hedgies been trading Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 28 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -10% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY). Royce & Associates has a $150.1 million position in the stock, comprising 0.5% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jeffrey Gates of Gates Capital Management, with a $90.3 million position; the fund has 4.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments, John Osterweis’s Osterweis Capital Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Due to the fact that Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) has faced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there were a few hedgies that slashed their positions entirely heading into Q2. Interestingly, Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP dumped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, worth an estimated $28 million in call options, and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson of Adage Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $27.3 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds heading into Q2.

How are insiders trading Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY). These stocks are Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN), Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT), Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (NYSE:RH), Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (NYSE:PIR), and Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM). All of these stocks are in the home furnishing stores industry and their market caps match BBBY’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) is no exception.

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