National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund interest recently.
Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the world of equities. There are a number of motivations for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the latest action regarding National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN).
Hedge fund activity in National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN)
In preparation for this year, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.
According to our comprehensive database, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the biggest position in National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN), worth close to $37 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On Fisher Asset Management’s heels is Jeffrey Furber of AEW Capital Management, with a $30 million position; the fund has 0.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Judging by the fact that National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN) has faced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of fund managers that decided to sell off their full holdings at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital said goodbye to the biggest position of the 450+ funds we monitor, totaling an estimated $2 million in stock.. Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s fund, LMR Partners, also said goodbye to its stock, about $1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
How have insiders been trading National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN)?
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN). These stocks are MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA), Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI), Douglas Emmett, Inc. (NYSE:DEI), Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:STWD), and W.P. Carey Inc. REIT (NYSE:WPC). This group of stocks belong to the reit – diversified industry and their market caps are closest to NNN’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) | 15 | 6 | 0 |
| Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI) | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| Douglas Emmett, Inc. (NYSE:DEI) | 8 | 0 | 1 |
| Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:STWD) | 20 | 1 | 1 |
| W.P. Carey Inc. REIT (NYSE:WPC) | 13 | 1 | 2 |
With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
