Here is What Hedge Funds Think About DSW Inc. (DSW)

Is it smart to be bullish on DSW Inc. (NYSE:DSW)?

To the average investor, there are plenty of indicators shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. A pair of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outpace the market by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as crucial, bullish insider trading activity is another way to analyze the world of equities. There are plenty of incentives for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s study the latest info surrounding DSW Inc. (NYSE:DSW).

How are hedge funds trading DSW Inc. (NYSE:DSW)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -7% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital had the most valuable position in DSW Inc. (NYSE:DSW), worth close to $64.9 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $32.8 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors.

Judging by the fact that DSW Inc. (NYSE:DSW) has faced declining interest from upper-tier hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there were a few money managers that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. Interestingly, Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital dropped the largest investment of all the hedgies we watch, valued at about $12.8 million in call options.. Andrew Sandler’s fund, Sandler Capital Management, also dropped its call options., about $12.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds last quarter.

How have insiders been trading DSW Inc. (NYSE:DSW)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, DSW Inc. (NYSE:DSW) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to DSW Inc. (NYSE:DSW). These stocks are Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF), The Buckle, Inc. (NYSE:BKE), American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO), Chico’s FAS, Inc. (NYSE:CHS), and Ascena Retail Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASNA). This group of stocks are in the apparel stores industry and their market caps are closest to DSW’s market cap.

Using the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s tactics, average investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and DSW Inc. (NYSE:DSW) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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