What’s smart V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) investor to do?
To many market players, hedge funds are perceived as overrated, old financial tools of a period lost to current times. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open in present day, Insider Monkey looks at the crème de la crème of this club, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group has its hands on the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total assets, and by monitoring their highest performing stock picks, we’ve identified a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find a sample of our picks).
Equally as necessary, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to look at the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a number of incentives for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Thus, it’s important to study the recent info for V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC).
How are hedge funds trading V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC)?
Heading into Q3, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 7% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, Diamond Hill Capital, managed by Ric Dillon, holds the biggest position in V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC). Diamond Hill Capital has a $169.8 million position in the stock, comprising 1.8% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $103.4 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management.
Now, certain money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Diamond Hill Capital, managed by Ric Dillon, assembled the most valuable position in V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC). Diamond Hill Capital had 169.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $103.4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new VFC investors: Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management.
Insider trading activity in V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC)
Insider buying is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time frame, V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC). These stocks are Gildan Activewear Inc (USA) (NYSE:GIL), Under Armour Inc (NYSE:UA), Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU), PVH Corp (NYSE:PVH), and Ralph Lauren Corp (NYSE:RL). This group of stocks belong to the textile – apparel clothing industry and their market caps are similar to VFC’s market cap.
