Is Destination Maternity Corp (NASDAQ:DEST) an outstanding investment right now? The best stock pickers are turning bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets advanced by 1 recently.
In the financial world, there are plenty of indicators investors can use to track stocks. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action regarding Destination Maternity Corp (NASDAQ:DEST).
How are hedge funds trading Destination Maternity Corp (NASDAQ:DEST)?
Heading into 2013, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 14% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the largest position in Destination Maternity Corp (NASDAQ:DEST). Renaissance Technologies has a $18.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which held a $7.2 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.
As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, established the most outsized position in Destination Maternity Corp (NASDAQ:DEST). Citadel Investment Group had 0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
Insider trading activity in Destination Maternity Corp (NASDAQ:DEST)
Insider buying is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, Destination Maternity Corp (NASDAQ:DEST) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Destination Maternity Corp (NASDAQ:DEST). These stocks are New York & Company, Inc. (NYSE:NWY), The Wet Seal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WTSL), Stein Mart, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMRT), Tilly’s Inc (NYSE:TLYS), and bebe stores, inc. (NASDAQ:BEBE). This group of stocks belong to the apparel stores industry and their market caps resemble DEST’s market cap.
#N/A
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| New York & Company, Inc. (NYSE:NWY) | 8 | 0 | 1 |
| The Wet Seal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WTSL) | 0 | 0 | |
| Stein Mart, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMRT) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Tilly’s Inc (NYSE:TLYS) | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| bebe stores, inc. (NASDAQ:BEBE) | 10 | 2 | 0 |
With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s tactics, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Destination Maternity Corp (NASDAQ:DEST) is no exception.
