Brookfield Office Properties Inc (USA) (BPO): Insiders and Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About It

At the moment, there are many indicators market participants can use to watch publicly traded companies. A couple 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 best investment managers can beat the broader indices by a solid amount (see just how much).

Just as necessary, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the world of equities. Obviously, there are a number of incentives for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

What’s more, it’s important to analyze the newest info surrounding Brookfield Office Properties Inc (USA) (NYSE:BPO).

How have hedgies been trading Brookfield Office Properties Inc (USA) (NYSE:BPO)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in Brookfield Office Properties Inc (USA) (NYSE:BPO), worth close to $17.7 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is AEW Capital Management, managed by Jeffrey Furber, which held a $16.2 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Because Brookfield Office Properties Inc (USA) (NYSE:BPO) has faced declining interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers that decided to sell off their full holdings heading into Q2. At the top of the heap, Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners dumped the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, comprising about $1.9 million in stock, and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Insider trading activity in Brookfield Office Properties Inc (USA) (NYSE:BPO)

Insider buying made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, Brookfield Office Properties Inc (USA) (NYSE:BPO) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Brookfield Office Properties Inc (USA) (NYSE:BPO). These stocks are Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:FCE-A), Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (NYSE:JLL), Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP), Realogy Holdings Corp (NYSE:RLGY), and CBRE Group Inc (NYSE:CBG). All of these stocks are in the property management industry and their market caps resemble BPO’s market cap.

Using the returns demonstrated by the previously mentioned strategies, average investors should always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Brookfield Office Properties Inc (USA) (NYSE:BPO) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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