Is Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON) a buy here? The best stock pickers are in a bearish mood. The number of long hedge fund bets went down by 2 recently.
In the financial world, there are plenty of indicators shareholders can use to watch the equity markets. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can outperform the market by a solid margin (see just how much).
Just as important, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of incentives for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you understand where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the latest action encompassing Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON).
Hedge fund activity in Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON)
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -20% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.
Of the funds we track, Wallace Weitz’s Wallace R. Weitz & Co. had the largest position in Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON), worth close to $73 million, accounting for 3.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by D. E. Shaw of D E Shaw, with a $2.4 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds that hold long positions include Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management, Zeke Ashton’s Centaur Capital Partners and Whitney Tilson’s T2 Partners.
Judging by the fact that Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there were a few hedgies that slashed their full holdings last quarter. Interestingly, Mark Travis’s Intrepid Capital Management dropped the largest position of the 450+ funds we watch, comprising an estimated $17.3 million in stock.. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s fund, Two Sigma Advisors, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.4 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds last quarter.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON). These stocks are Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW), Crocs, Inc. (NASDAQ:CROX), Tumi Holdings Inc (NYSE:TUMI), Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ:DECK), and Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO). All of these stocks are in the textile – apparel footwear & accessories industry and their market caps resemble ICON’s market cap.
