Hedge Funds Are Betting On Reis Inc (REIS)

Is Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS) a good investment right now? We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, expert networks, and get tips from industry insiders. They fail miserably sometimes but historically their consensus stock picks outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk factors.

Is Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS) a sound investment today? The smart money is taking a bullish view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets rose by 1 recently. REIS was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with REIS positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare REIS to other stocks including American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI), OMNOVA Solutions Inc. (NYSE:OMN), and Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCLR) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Today there are numerous signals shareholders employ to analyze publicly traded companies. A couple of the less utilized signals are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a very impressive amount (see the details here).

With all of this in mind, let’s review the new action surrounding Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS).

Hedge fund activity in Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS)

At Q3’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 13% from the second quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exist a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Nine Ten Partners, managed by Brian Bares, Russell Mollen, and James Bradshaw, holds the number one position in Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS). Nine Ten Partners has an $19.5 million position in the stock, comprising 8.8% of its 13F portfolio. On Nine Ten Partners’s heels is Renaissance Technologies, led by Jim Simons, holding an $5.6 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining members of the smart money that are bullish consist of Peter Schliemann’s Rutabaga Capital Management, J. Carlo Cannell’s Cannell Capital and Mark Coe’s Coe Capital Management.

Now, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Coe Capital Management, managed by Mark Coe, established the biggest position in Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS). Coe Capital Management had $0.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors also initiated an $0.2 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS) but similarly valued. These stocks are American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI), OMNOVA Solutions Inc. (NYSE:OMN), Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCLR), and Tucows Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:TCX). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to REIS’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $32 million. That figure was $32 million in REIS’s case. Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCLR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS) shares the same popularity as ASEI. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock.