The 700+ hedge funds and money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the fourth quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of December 31. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund positions. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY).
Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the third quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Masonite International Corp (NYSE:DOOR), WSFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:WSFS), and Suburban Propane Partners LP (NYSE:SPH) to gather more data points.
According to most traders, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, old investment vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, Our researchers choose to focus on the aristocrats of this group, about 750 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors handle the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their finest stock picks, Insider Monkey has formulated various investment strategies that have historically outstripped the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy exceeded the S&P 500 index by nearly 5 percentage points per year since its inception in May 2014 through early November 2018. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.5% since February 2017 (through March 12th) even though the market was up nearly 25% during the same period. We just shared a list of 6 short targets in our latest quarterly update and they are already down an average of 6% in less than a month.
We’re going to review the key hedge fund action surrounding Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY).
How are hedge funds trading Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the second quarter of 2018. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards GTY over the last 14 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $74.8 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by Two Sigma Advisors with a $2.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included AQR Capital Management, Navellier & Associates, and Winton Capital Management.
Judging by the fact that Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY) has experienced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few hedgies who were dropping their positions entirely in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Jeffrey Pierce’s Snow Park Capital Partners cut the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $1.6 million in stock, and Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY). We will take a look at Masonite International Corp (NYSE:DOOR), WSFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:WSFS), Suburban Propane Partners LP (NYSE:SPH), and NGL Energy Partners LP (NYSE:NGL). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble GTY’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOOR | 19 | 215680 | -2 |
| WSFS | 12 | 115665 | 2 |
| SPH | 5 | 76397 | 1 |
| NGL | 4 | 3345 | -1 |
| Average | 10 | 102772 | 0 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $103 million. That figure was $82 million in GTY’s case. Masonite International Corp (NYSE:DOOR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand NGL Energy Partners LP (NYSE:NGL) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY) 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 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. Unfortunately GTY wasn’t nearly as popular as these 15 stock (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); GTY investors were disappointed as the stock returned 7.8% and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
