Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Quiksilver, Inc. (ZQK)?

Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK) has seen an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months.

To most traders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the masters of this club, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by watching their best picks, we have identified a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of motivations for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if you understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a peek at the key action surrounding Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK).

What have hedge funds been doing with Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 9% from the first quarter.

Consequently, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. HBK Investments, managed by David Costen Haley, established the largest position in Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK). HBK Investments had 1.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors also made a $0.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new ZQK position is Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital.

How are insiders trading Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK). These stocks are Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM), UniFirst Corp (NYSE:UNF), True Religion Apparel, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRLG), G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIII), and Oxford Industries, Inc. (NYSE:OXM). This group of stocks belong to the textile – apparel clothing industry and their market caps are similar to ZQK’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s research, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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