Is CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (CBL) A Good Stock To Buy?

Hedge funds run by legendary names like Nelson Peltz and David Tepper make billions of dollars a year for themselves and their super-rich accredited investors (you’ve got to have a minimum of $1 million liquid to invest in a hedge fund) by spending enormous resources on analyzing and uncovering data about small-cap stocks that the big brokerage houses don’t follow. Small caps are where they can generate significant out-performance. That’s why we pay special attention to hedge fund activity in these stocks.

CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE:CBL) was in 21 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. CBL shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund interest of late. There were 18 hedge funds in our database with CBL positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare CBL to other stocks including PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH), Criteo SA (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRTO), and Medidata Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:MDSO) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Now, let’s go over the key action regarding CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE:CBL).

Hedge fund activity in CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE:CBL)

At Q3’s end, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 17% from the second quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, James H. Litinsky’s JHL Capital Group has the largest position in CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE:CBL), worth close to $56.4 million, corresponding to 6.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $24.8 million position; the fund has less than 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions include Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Consequently, key money managers have jumped into CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE:CBL) headfirst. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, assembled the most outsized position in CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE:CBL). Balyasny Asset Management had $6.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $2.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Chao Ku’s Nine Chapters Capital Management, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE:CBL). These stocks are PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH), Criteo SA (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRTO), Medidata Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:MDSO), and PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT). This group of stocks’ market caps match CBL’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 15 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $106 million. That figure was $138 million in CBL’s case. Criteo SA (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRTO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE:CBL) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.