Hedge Funds Are Betting On American Assets Trust, Inc (AAT)

Is American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT) a buy here? Investors who are in the know are in a bullish mood. The number of long hedge fund positions improved by 2 lately.

To the average investor, there are many methods market participants can use to analyze the equity markets. Two of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a significant margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. Obviously, there are many stimuli for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a gander at the latest action encompassing American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT).

What have hedge funds been doing with American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 40% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Jeffrey Furber’s AEW Capital Management had the biggest position in American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT), worth close to $36.4 million, comprising 1% of its total 13F portfolio. On AEW Capital Management’s heels is D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, which held a $9.6 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Now, specific money managers have jumped into American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT) headfirst. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, created the largest position in American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT). Two Sigma Advisors had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also made a $0.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT) has experienced 1 unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT). These stocks are Select Income REIT (NYSE:SIR), Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE:GOV), Franklin Street Properties Corp. (NYSEAMEX:FSP), Hudson Pacific Properties Inc (NYSE:HPP), and Parkway Properties Inc (NYSE:PKY). This group of stocks are the members of the reit – office industry and their market caps match AAT’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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