Is MNR A Good Stock To Buy Now?

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 fund investors experienced strong gains on the back of a strong market performance, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain the desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE:MNR).

Is MNR a good stock to buy now? Money managers were getting more optimistic. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 6 lately. Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE:MNR) was in 16 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistic is 14. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that MNR isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks). There were 10 hedge funds in our database with MNR positions at the end of the second quarter.

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

Today there are dozens of formulas stock market investors put to use to appraise publicly traded companies. A pair of the most useful formulas are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can outpace the broader indices by a very impressive margin (see the details here).

Michael Gelband of ExodusPoint Capital

At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost real estate prices. So, we recommended this real estate stock to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 15 best blue chip stocks to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. Now let’s take a peek at the recent hedge fund action regarding Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE:MNR).

Do Hedge Funds Think MNR Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2020, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 60% from the second quarter of 2020. On the other hand, there were a total of 11 hedge funds with a bullish position in MNR a year ago. So, let’s examine 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, Renaissance Technologies, holds the biggest position in Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE:MNR). Renaissance Technologies has a $36.3 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which holds a $10.4 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other professional money managers with similar optimism include John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Zebra Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE:MNR), around 0.94% of its 13F portfolio. Third Avenue Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.06 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MNR.

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have jumped into Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE:MNR) headfirst. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, assembled the biggest position in Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE:MNR). Balyasny Asset Management had $5.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital also initiated a $1.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new MNR positions are Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp, Roger Ibbotson’s Zebra Capital Management, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE:MNR) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Sleep Number Corporation (NASDAQ:SNBR), CSG Systems International, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGS), Monro Inc (NASDAQ:MNRO), Marten Transport, Ltd (NASDAQ:MRTN), Patrick Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:PATK), Purple Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRPL), and Heron Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:HRTX). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to MNR’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $210 million. That figure was $67 million in MNR’s case. Purple Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRPL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Monro Inc (NASDAQ:MNRO) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE:MNR) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for MNR is 44.5. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10 percentage points. These stocks gained 30.7% in 2020 through December 14th and still beat the market by 15.8 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on MNR as the stock returned 18.1% since the end of the third quarter (through 12/14) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.