Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love General Growth Properties Inc (GGP)?

General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP) investors should pay attention to a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently.

In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, outdated investment tools of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the leaders of this club, about 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by keeping an eye on their top picks, we have found a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are a number of reasons for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a look at the key action encompassing General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP).

What have hedge funds been doing with General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 22 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -4% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square had the biggest position in General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP), worth close to $1.4857 billion, accounting for 14.8% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $74.8 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies that are bullish include Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Seeing as General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP) has faced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there were a few money managers that slashed their positions entirely in Q1. At the top of the heap, Kenneth Mario Garschina’s Mason Capital Management cut the largest position of all the hedgies we track, worth about $197.5 million in stock.. James Dinan’s fund, York Capital Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $153.3 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds in Q1.

What have insiders been doing with General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time frame, General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP). These stocks are Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT), SL Green Realty Corp (NYSE:SLG), Realty Income Corp (NYSE:O), Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC), and Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM). This group of stocks are in the reit – retail industry and their market caps are closest to GGP’s market cap.