Hedge Funds Are Selling Macerich Co (MAC)

Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC) has seen a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently.

At the moment, there are tons of gauges investors can use to monitor their holdings. A duo of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of incentives for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a glance at the latest action regarding Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC).

What have hedge funds been doing with Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Jeffrey Furber’s AEW Capital Management had the most valuable position in Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC), worth close to $135.2 million, comprising 3.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Carlson Capital, managed by Clint Carlson, which held a $61.2 million position; the fund has 0.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management.

Judging by the fact that Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC) has experienced a declination in interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of money managers that decided to sell off their full holdings heading into Q2. Intriguingly, John Khoury’s Long Pond Capital dropped the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we monitor, worth about $2.3 million in stock., and Ken Gray and Steve Walsh of Bryn Mawr Capital was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.8 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

What have insiders been doing with Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 4 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 Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC). These stocks are DDR Corp (NYSE:DDR), Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT), SL Green Realty Corp (NYSE:SLG), Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM), and Realty Income Corp (NYSE:O). This group of stocks are in the reit – retail industry and their market caps are similar to MAC’s market cap.