Steven Madden, Ltd. (SHOO): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO) has experienced an increase in hedge fund sentiment of late.

At the moment, there are tons of metrics market participants can use to watch their holdings. A duo of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of incentives for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a look at the key action surrounding Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO).

What have hedge funds been doing with Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 13% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the largest position in Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO), worth close to $86.9 million, accounting for 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Impala Asset Management, managed by Robert Bishop, which held a $27.8 million position; 1.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, David Keidan’s Buckingham Capital Management and Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors.

Consequently, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Columbus Circle Investors, managed by Donald Chiboucis, created the most valuable position in Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO). Columbus Circle Investors had 14.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also made a $10.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new SHOO positions are Wojciech Uzdelewicz’s Espalier Global Management, Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

Insider trading activity in Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO)

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO). These stocks are Crocs, Inc. (NASDAQ:CROX), Tumi Holdings Inc (NYSE:TUMI), Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW), Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON), and Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ:DECK). This group of stocks are the members of the textile – apparel footwear & accessories industry and their market caps resemble SHOO’s market cap.