Is Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM) a buy, sell, or hold? Investors who are in the know are in a pessimistic mood. The number of long hedge fund bets were trimmed by 2 lately.
If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we look at the upper echelon of this club, around 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by monitoring their highest performing picks, we have formulated a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).
Equally as key, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the financial markets. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
Now, let’s take a peek at the recent action surrounding Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM).
What have hedge funds been doing with Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -18% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.
According to our comprehensive database, Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, holds the most valuable position in Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM). Adage Capital Management has a $13.1 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $7 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish include Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management and Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management.
Since Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM) has experienced falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of fund managers who sold off their positions entirely at the end of the first quarter. At the top of the heap, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies said goodbye to the largest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, worth an estimated $12.1 million in stock., and Sander Gerber of Hudson Bay Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds at the end of the first quarter.
What have insiders been doing with Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM). These stocks are DDR Corp (NYSE:DDR), Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT), SL Green Realty Corp (NYSE:SLG), Realty Income Corp (NYSE:O), and Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC). All of these stocks are in the reit – retail industry and their market caps are similar to KIM’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| DDR Corp (NYSE:DDR) | 11 | 0 | 6 |
| Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT) | 14 | 0 | 3 |
| SL Green Realty Corp (NYSE:SLG) | 10 | 0 | 8 |
| Realty Income Corp (NYSE:O) | 9 | 0 | 10 |
| Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC) | 10 | 0 | 4 |
With the returns demonstrated by our research, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
