Hedge Funds Are Buying Columbia Property Trust Inc (CXP)

The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge fund investors experienced strong gains on the back of a strong market performance, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain the desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP).

Is Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP) undervalued? Prominent investors are taking a bullish view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets advanced by 2 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that CXP isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).

Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the Russell 2000 ETFs by 40 percentage points since May 2014 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 27.8% through November 21, 2019. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies

We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We also rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. Let’s view the fresh hedge fund action regarding Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP).

What have hedge funds been doing with Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP)?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2019, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 17% from the second quarter of 2019. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards CXP over the last 17 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP), which was worth $33.2 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Millennium Management which amassed $11.5 million worth of shares. Citadel Investment Group, Arrowstreet Capital, and Tudor Investment Corp were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Caxton Associates allocated the biggest weight to Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP), around 0.08% of its 13F portfolio. Tudor Investment Corp is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.06 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CXP.

Now, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, initiated the biggest position in Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP). AQR Capital Management had $1.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Harding’s Winton Capital Management also initiated a $1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital, Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates, and Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP) but similarly valued. These stocks are CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO), Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR), Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc (NASDAQ:RARE), and Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP). This group of stocks’ market values resemble CXP’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $243 million. That figure was $69 million in CXP’s case. Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP) is even less popular than CNO. Hedge funds dodged a bullet by taking a bearish stance towards CXP. Our calculations showed that the top 20 most popular hedge fund stocks returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. Unfortunately CXP wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was very bearish); CXP investors were disappointed as the stock returned -1.8% during the fourth quarter (through the end of November) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as 70 percent of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in Q4.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.