Is Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) a good place to invest some of your money right now? We can gain invaluable insight to help us answer that question by studying the investment trends of top investors, who employ world-class Ivy League graduates, who are given immense resources and industry contacts to put their financial expertise to work. The top picks of these firms have historically outperformed the market when we account for known risk factors, making them very valuable investment ideas.
Is Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) a buy here? Investors who are in the know are in a bullish mood. The number of long hedge fund bets inched up by 2 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that UE isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds. UE was in 14 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2019. There were 12 hedge funds in our database with UE holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
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.
We’re going to view the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE).
Hedge fund activity in Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE)
Heading into the second quarter of 2019, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from the fourth quarter of 2018. By comparison, 10 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in UE a year ago. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies has the biggest position in Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE), worth close to $17.6 million, corresponding to less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Clint Carlson of Carlson Capital, with a $16.2 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining members of the smart money that are bullish encompass Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Now, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Carlson Capital, managed by Clint Carlson, created the largest position in Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE). Carlson Capital had $16.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management also initiated a $5.9 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE). We will take a look at CenterState Bank Corporation (NASDAQ:CSFL), Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. (NYSE:BHVN), Independent Bank Corp (NASDAQ:INDB), and PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL). All of these stocks’ market caps match UE’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSFL | 16 | 136212 | -4 |
| BHVN | 33 | 386094 | 11 |
| INDB | 6 | 7051 | -3 |
| POL | 23 | 151231 | 4 |
| Average | 19.5 | 170147 | 2 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $170 million. That figure was $97 million in UE’s case. Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. (NYSE:BHVN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Independent Bank Corp (NASDAQ:INDB) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 6.2% in Q2 through June 19th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 3 percentage points. Unfortunately UE wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); UE investors were disappointed as the stock returned -4.3% during the same time period 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 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in Q2.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
