The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing more than 730 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of June 28th, 2019. What do these smart investors think about Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (NASDAQ:ILPT)?
Is Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (NASDAQ:ILPT) a buy here? Hedge funds are reducing their bets on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund bets were cut by 7 lately. Our calculations also showed that ILPT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (see the video below). ILPT was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2019. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with ILPT positions at the end of the previous quarter.
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s flagship best performing hedge funds strategy returned 25.8% year to date (through May 30th) and outperformed the market even though it draws its stock picks among small-cap stocks. This strategy also outperformed the market by 40 percentage points since its inception (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Unlike former hedge manager, Dr. Steve Sjuggerud, who is convinced Dow will soar past 40000, our long-short investment strategy doesn’t rely on bull markets to deliver double digit returns. We only rely on hedge fund buy/sell signals. We’re going to take a peek at the key hedge fund action regarding Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (NASDAQ:ILPT).
What does smart money think about Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (NASDAQ:ILPT)?
Heading into the third quarter of 2019, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -44% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in ILPT over the last 16 quarters. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (NASDAQ:ILPT) was held by Indaba Capital Management, which reported holding $52.9 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by Citadel Investment Group with a $22.4 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Arrowstreet Capital, Algert Coldiron Investors, and Renaissance Technologies.
Due to the fact that Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (NASDAQ:ILPT) has faced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely heading into Q3. At the top of the heap, David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments sold off the largest position of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $43.8 million in stock, and Carson Yost’s Yost Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $22.2 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 7 funds heading into Q3.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (NASDAQ:ILPT) but similarly valued. These stocks are Mobile Mini Inc (NASDAQ:MINI), Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO), Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI), and B&G Foods, Inc. (NYSE:BGS). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to ILPT’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| MINI | 15 | 91898 | 1 |
| CECO | 22 | 216393 | 0 |
| VVI | 16 | 120247 | 3 |
| BGS | 20 | 121608 | 1 |
| Average | 18.25 | 137537 | 1.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 18.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $138 million. That figure was $87 million in ILPT’s case. Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Mobile Mini Inc (NASDAQ:MINI) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (NASDAQ:ILPT) is even less popular than MINI. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 24.4% in 2019 through September 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 4 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on ILPT, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 3.7% during the third quarter and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
