Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Extra Space Storage, Inc. (EXR)?

What’s a smart Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR) investor to do?

To many traders, hedge funds are perceived as overrated, outdated financial tools of a period lost to current times. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open today, Insider Monkey focuses on the leaders of this group, about 525 funds. It is assumed that this group oversees most of all hedge funds’ total assets, and by watching their highest performing stock picks, we’ve determined a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we‘ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find the details here).

Equally as useful, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of incentives for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

Furthermore, let’s discuss the latest info about Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR).

Hedge fund activity in Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR)

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 33% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, AEW Capital Management, managed by Jeffrey Furber, holds the biggest position in Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR). AEW Capital Management has a $67.3 million position in the stock, comprising 1.8% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Capital Growth Management, managed by Ken Heebner, which held a $61.6 million position; the fund has 1.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Now, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. AEW Capital Management, managed by Jeffrey Furber, assembled the biggest position in Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR). AEW Capital Management had 67.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management also made a $61.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

What have insiders been doing with Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time period, Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR). These stocks are Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS), DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE:DCT), CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE), Duke Realty Corp (NYSE:DRE), and Biomed Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:BMR). This group of stocks are the members of the reit – industrial industry and their market caps resemble EXR’s market cap.

Using the returns explained by the previously mentioned studies, regular investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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