Is Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (HVT) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds? – Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (PIR), Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (RH)

Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. HVT has seen an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. There were 4 hedge funds in our database with HVT positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are a multitude of methods market participants can use to analyze publicly traded companies. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can beat their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are a number of reasons for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a peek at the recent action regarding Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT).

What have hedge funds been doing with Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT)?

At year’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 125% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the largest position in Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT), worth close to $8.6 million, accounting for less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $3.3 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management and Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names have jumped into Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT) headfirst. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, assembled the biggest position in Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT). Citadel Investment Group had 2.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management also initiated a $1.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT). These stocks are Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM), Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (NYSE:PIR), Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (NYSE:RH), Kirkland’s, Inc. (NASDAQ:KIRK), and Gordmans Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMAN). This group of stocks belong to the home furnishing stores industry and their market caps are similar to HVT’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by our strategies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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