Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (WWW) Anymore

Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW) has experienced a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

According to most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we choose to focus on the top tier of this club, close to 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group has its hands on the majority of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by watching their highest performing investments, we have discovered a few investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as integral, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are many stimuli for an upper level exec to get rid of 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 market-beating potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action regarding Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW).

What does the smart money think about Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -20% from the previous quarter.

Seeing as Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few hedgies who were dropping their entire stakes at the end of the first quarter. At the top of the heap, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management sold off the largest investment of the 450+ funds we watch, valued at an estimated $0.7 million in stock.. David Harding’s fund, Winton Capital Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds at the end of the first quarter.

How have insiders been trading Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW)?

Insider buying is best served when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW). These stocks are Crocs, Inc. (NASDAQ:CROX), Tumi Holdings Inc (NYSE:TUMI), Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON), Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO), and Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ:DECK). This group of stocks are in the textile – apparel footwear & accessories industry and their market caps are similar to WWW’s market cap.