Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Essex Property Trust Inc (ESS) Anymore

Essex Property Trust Inc (NYSE:ESS) has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently.

In the financial world, there are plenty of methods shareholders can use to track publicly traded companies. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of reasons for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a gander at the key action regarding Essex Property Trust Inc (NYSE:ESS).

How are hedge funds trading Essex Property Trust Inc (NYSE:ESS)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -8% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group had the biggest position in Essex Property Trust Inc (NYSE:ESS), worth close to $88.7 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Capital Growth Management, managed by Ken Heebner, which held a $80.8 million position; the fund has 2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

Due to the fact that Essex Property Trust Inc (NYSE:ESS) has faced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of fund managers that elected to cut their full holdings at the end of the first quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies said goodbye to the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, valued at about $15.9 million in stock., and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.3 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds at the end of the first quarter.

How have insiders been trading Essex Property Trust Inc (NYSE:ESS)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Essex Property Trust Inc (NYSE:ESS) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 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 Essex Property Trust Inc (NYSE:ESS). These stocks are Two Harbors Investment Corp (NYSE:TWO), American Campus Communities, Inc. (NYSE:ACC), Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE:SNH), UDR, Inc. (NYSE:UDR), and Camden Property Trust (NYSE:CPT). This group of stocks are in the reit – residential industry and their market caps are similar to ESS’s market cap.