To most traders, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading today, we look at the leaders of this group, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group oversees the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing picks, we have formulated a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the financial markets. Obviously, there are a variety of stimuli for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if you understand what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the latest action regarding Saul Centers Inc (NYSE:BFS).
How have hedgies been trading Saul Centers Inc (NYSE:BFS)?
In preparation for this year, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.
Of the funds we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in Saul Centers Inc (NYSE:BFS), worth close to $1.2 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $0.8 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers with similar optimism include John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Thomas Bailard’s Bailard Inc.
Due to the fact that Saul Centers Inc (NYSE:BFS) has experienced a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there were a few hedgies who were dropping their entire stakes at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Mike Vranos’s Ellington dropped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we track, valued at about $0.3 million in stock. These moves 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 Saul Centers Inc (NYSE:BFS)
Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, Saul Centers Inc (NYSE:BFS) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Saul Centers Inc (NYSE:BFS). These stocks are Pennsylvania R.E.I.T. (NYSE:PEI), Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA), Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust (NYSE:RPT), Retail Opportunity Investments Corp (NASDAQ:ROIC), and Inland Real Estate Corporation (NYSE:IRC). This group of stocks belong to the reit – retail industry and their market caps are similar to BFS’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Pennsylvania R.E.I.T. (NYSE:PEI) | 9 | 0 | 4 |
| Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA) | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust (NYSE:RPT) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Retail Opportunity Investments Corp (NASDAQ:ROIC) | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Inland Real Estate Corporation (NYSE:IRC) | 5 | 9 | 0 |
With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s research, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Saul Centers Inc (NYSE:BFS) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
