Cousins Properties Inc (CUZ): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Undecided, What Should You Do?

In the financial world, there are a multitude of methods market participants can use to track their holdings. Some 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 top picks of the elite investment managers can outpace the broader indices by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as necessary, positive insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Furthermore, we’re going to study the recent info about Cousins Properties Inc (NYSE:CUZ).

What have hedge funds been doing with Cousins Properties Inc (NYSE:CUZ)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 22% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

According to our 13F database, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the most valuable position in Cousins Properties Inc (NYSE:CUZ), worth close to $6 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, which held a $5.7 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

As one would understandably expect, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, assembled the largest position in Cousins Properties Inc (NYSE:CUZ). Renaissance Technologies had 6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management also initiated a $5.7 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CUZ investors: Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Insider trading activity in Cousins Properties Inc (NYSE:CUZ)

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Cousins Properties Inc (NYSE:CUZ) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Cousins Properties Inc (NYSE:CUZ). These stocks are Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH), iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE:SFI), Crexus Investment Corp (NYSE:CXS), Capstead Mortgage Corporation (NYSE:CMO), and Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET). This group of stocks are in the reit – diversified industry and their market caps resemble CUZ’s market cap.