The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge funds have been producing disappointing net returns in recent years, however that was partly due to the poor performance of small-cap stocks in general. Well, small-cap stocks finally turned the corner and have been beating the large-cap stocks by more than 10 percentage points over the last 5 months.This means the relevancy of hedge funds’ public filings became inarguable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Easterly Government Properties Inc (NYSE:DEA).
Is Easterly Government Properties Inc (NYSE:DEA) the right investment to pursue these days? Money managers don’t think so, as they are selling. The number of bullish hedge fund positions retreated by 2 lately. DEA was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with DEA holdings at the end of June. 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 Enviva Partners LP (NYSE:EVA), The Gorman-Rupp Company (NYSEAMEX:GRC), and Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) to gather more data points.
Follow Easterly Government Properties Inc. (NYSE:DEA)
Follow Easterly Government Properties Inc. (NYSE:DEA)
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
Aleksandr Bagri/Shutterstock.com
What have hedge funds been doing with Easterly Government Properties Inc (NYSE:DEA)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a 20% drop from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 6 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in DEA heading into this year, so hedge fund ownership is still up by 33% in 2016. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, AEW Capital Management, led by Jeffrey Furber, holds the number one position in Easterly Government Properties Inc (NYSE:DEA). AEW Capital Management has a $29.8 million position in the stock. The second most bullish fund manager is Alyeska Investment Group, led by Anand Parekh, which holds a $15.9 million position. Remaining peers that are bullish consist of Ira Unschuld’s Brant Point Investment Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds, which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-micro-cap stocks.
Since Easterly Government Properties Inc (NYSE:DEA) has weathered bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedge funds that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, Renaissance Technologies, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, dumped the biggest stake of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $2.2 million in stock. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also dumped its stock, about $0.9 million worth.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Easterly Government Properties Inc (NYSE:DEA) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Enviva Partners LP (NYSE:EVA), The Gorman-Rupp Company (NYSEAMEX:GRC), Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR), and Blackstone / GSO Strategic Credit Fund (NYSE:BGB). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to DEA’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| EVA | 2 | 4790 | 0 |
| GRC | 5 | 35062 | -1 |
| ITGR | 13 | 73632 | 1 |
| BGB | 5 | 60767 | 1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $44 million. That figure was $52 million in DEA’s case. Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Enviva Partners LP (NYSE:EVA) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Easterly Government Properties Inc (NYSE:DEA) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ITGR might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None