Legendary investors such as Leon Cooperman and Seth Klarman earn enormous amounts of money for themselves and their investors by doing in-depth research on small-cap stocks that big brokerage houses don’t publish. Small cap stocks -especially when they are screened well- can generate substantial outperformance versus a boring index fund. That’s why we analyze the activity of those elite funds in these small-cap stocks. In the following paragraphs, we analyze Equity One, Inc. (NYSE:EQY) from the perspective of those elite funds.
Equity One, Inc. (NYSE:EQY) has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money recently, being included in the portfolios of 17 investment firms in our database. At the end of this article we will also compare Equity One, Inc. to other stocks including Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL), Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN), and Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Equity One Inc. (NYSE:EQY)
Follow Equity One Inc. (NYSE:EQY)
At the moment there are numerous metrics stock traders can use to size up stocks. A pair of the most innovative metrics are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a very impressive amount (see the details here).
Now, let’s go over the latest action encompassing Equity One, Inc. (NYSE:EQY).
Hedge fund activity in Equity One, Inc. (NYSE:EQY)
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a 42% jump from the second quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or had already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, holds the number one position in Equity One, Inc. (NYSE:EQY). Millennium Management has a $47.8 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. On Millennium Management’s heels is Waterfront Capital Partners, managed by Eduardo Abush, which holds a $17.5 million position; 2.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism comprise Renaissance Technologies, Lee Munder’s Lee Munder Capital Group, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Waterfront Capital Partners assembled the most valuable position in Equity One, Inc. (NYSE:EQY). Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management also made a $5.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management, and Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Equity One, Inc. (NYSE:EQY). These stocks are Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL), Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN), Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP), and Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ:MSCC). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble Equity One, Inc.’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| WAL | 28 | 321611 | 2 |
| SLGN | 9 | 66198 | -3 |
| BPOP | 30 | 708510 | -2 |
| MSCC | 12 | 82075 | -9 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $295 million. That figure was $115 million in Equity One, Inc.’s case. Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Equity One, Inc. (NYSE:EQY) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard Popular Inc might be a better candidate to consider for a long position.
