Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB) was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. JOSB investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with JOSB positions at the end of the previous quarter.
At the moment, there are tons of metrics market participants can use to monitor stocks. Some of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).
Equally as key, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a gander at the key action regarding Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB).
Hedge fund activity in Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB)
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 30% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.
Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB). Royce & Associates has a $121.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.4% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Valinor Management LLC, managed by David Gallo, which held a $40.8 million position; 1.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Ralph V. Whitworth’s Relational Investors, Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Relational Investors, managed by Ralph V. Whitworth, created the biggest position in Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB). Relational Investors had 29.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack’s Nantahala Capital Management also initiated a $2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new JOSB investors: Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.
Insider trading activity in Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB)
Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB). These stocks are Genesco Inc. (NYSE:GCO), Ann Inc (NYSE:ANN), The Jones Group Inc. (NYSE:JNY), Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE), and Aeropostale, Inc. (NYSE:ARO). This group of stocks are in the apparel stores industry and their market caps are closest to JOSB’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Genesco Inc. (NYSE:GCO) | 13 | 0 | 4 |
| Ann Inc (NYSE:ANN) | 19 | 0 | 2 |
| The Jones Group Inc. (NYSE:JNY) | 12 | 0 | 3 |
| Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE) | 19 | 0 | 5 |
| Aeropostale, Inc. (NYSE:ARO) | 20 | 0 | 1 |
With the returns shown by our research, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (NASDAQ:JOSB) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
