Should You Buy 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (FLWS)?

1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLWS) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. FLWS has seen an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with FLWS positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are a multitude of methods market participants can use to monitor their holdings. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can outperform the market by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the financial markets. Obviously, there are a variety of incentives for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action regarding 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLWS).

Hedge fund activity in 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLWS)

At Q1’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 11% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the biggest position in 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLWS). Renaissance Technologies has a $4.5 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Michael M. Rothenberg and David Sackler of Moab Capital Partners, with a $3.9 million position; the fund has 2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. LMR Partners, managed by Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold, assembled the most outsized position in 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLWS). LMR Partners had 0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

Insider trading activity in 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLWS)

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time period, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLWS) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLWS). These stocks are West Marine, Inc. (NASDAQ:WMAR), TravelCenters of America LLC (NYSE:TA), Winmark Corporation (NASDAQ:WINA), Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED), and MarineMax, Inc. (NYSE:HZO). This group of stocks belong to the specialty retail, other industry and their market caps are similar to FLWS’s market cap.