Cedar Realty Trust Inc (CDR): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Cedar Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:CDR) investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

To most market participants, hedge funds are viewed as slow, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the top tier of this group, close to 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by watching their highest performing stock picks, we have uncovered a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outperformed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as key, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the financial markets. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a look at the recent action encompassing Cedar Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:CDR).

How have hedgies been trading Cedar Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:CDR)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 33% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Robert Jaffe’s Force Capital had the largest position in Cedar Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:CDR), worth close to $3.3 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $2.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers have jumped into Cedar Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:CDR) headfirst. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, created the largest position in Cedar Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:CDR). Millennium Management had 2.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new CDR position is D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Insider trading activity in Cedar Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:CDR)

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Cedar Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:CDR) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Cedar Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:CDR). These stocks are Saul Centers Inc (NYSE:BFS), Retail Opportunity Investments Corp (NASDAQ:ROIC), Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA), Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY), and Kite Realty Group Trust (NYSE:KRG). This group of stocks are the members of the reit – retail industry and their market caps match CDR’s market cap.