Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM) was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. COLM has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. There were 4 hedge funds in our database with COLM holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of methods investors can use to watch Mr. Market. Some of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, it’s important to take a gander at the recent action surrounding Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM).
How are hedge funds trading Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM)?
At year’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 100% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.
Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the biggest position in Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM). Royce & Associates has a $105.4 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $5 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names were breaking ground themselves. D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, assembled the biggest position in Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM). D E Shaw had 0.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $0.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new COLM investors: Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital.
How have insiders been trading Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM)?
Bullish insider trading is best served when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time period, Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM). These stocks are Oxford Industries, Inc. (NYSE:OXM), Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK), Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI), Fifth & Pacific Companies Inc (NYSE:FNP), and UniFirst Corp (NYSE:UNF). This group of stocks are the members of the textile – apparel clothing industry and their market caps are closest to COLM’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Oxford Industries, Inc. (NYSE:OXM) | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK) | 8 | 0 | 2 |
| Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI) | 30 | 0 | 1 |
| Fifth & Pacific Companies Inc (NYSE:FNP) | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| UniFirst Corp (NYSE:UNF) | 9 | 0 | 4 |
With the results exhibited by our research, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM) applies perfectly to this mantra.
