Hedge Funds Are Holding Zale Corporation (ZLC)

Zale Corporation (NYSE:ZLC) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. ZLC investors should be aware of a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with ZLC positions at the end of the previous quarter.

To most traders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, old financial vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the aristocrats of this group, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group oversees most of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their top investments, we have unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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 outclassed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a look at the latest action surrounding Zale Corporation (NYSE:ZLC).

What does the smart money think about Zale Corporation (NYSE:ZLC)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter.

Because Zale Corporation (NYSE:ZLC) has witnessed a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few money managers that slashed their positions entirely last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies said goodbye to the biggest position of all the hedgies we key on, valued at an estimated $0.4 million in stock., and Charles Davidson of Wexford Capital was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How have insiders been trading Zale Corporation (NYSE:ZLC)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time period, Zale Corporation (NYSE:ZLC) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s studies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Zale Corporation (NYSE:ZLC) is no exception.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds