HSN, Inc. (HSNI): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It But Hedge Funds Love It

Is HSN, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSNI) a good investment?

In today’s marketplace, there are plenty of gauges shareholders can use to analyze the equity markets. A duo of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top fund managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as necessary, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the world of equities. Obviously, there are lots of stimuli for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to discuss the newest info surrounding HSN, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSNI).

How are hedge funds trading HSN, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSNI)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 45% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Harris Associates, managed by Natixis Global Asset Management, holds the biggest position in HSN, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSNI). Harris Associates has a $94.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Crosslink Capital, managed by Seymour Sy Kaufman and Michael Stark, which held a $13 million position; 1.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

As aggregate interest spiked, certain money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Crosslink Capital, managed by Seymour Sy Kaufman and Michael Stark, assembled the largest position in HSN, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSNI). Crosslink Capital had 13 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors also initiated a $10.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new HSNI positions are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management.

How have insiders been trading HSN, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSNI)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time frame, HSN, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSNI) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to HSN, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSNI). These stocks are Vitamin Shoppe Inc (NYSE:VSI), Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSTR), Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SBH), Five Below Inc (NASDAQ:FIVE), and Sothebys (NYSE:BID). All of these stocks are in the specialty retail, other industry and their market caps resemble HSNI’s market cap.