Is One Liberty Properties, Inc. (OLP) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

We at Insider Monkey have gone over 821 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, near the height of the coronavirus market crash. In this article, we look at what those funds think of One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP) based on that data.

Is One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP) the right investment to pursue these days? Hedge funds are taking a bullish view. The number of long hedge fund bets moved up by 1 recently. Our calculations also showed that OLP isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks). OLP was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with OLP holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

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

If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, outdated financial tools of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds in operation at present, Our researchers hone in on the elite of this group, approximately 850 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people control the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by shadowing their finest picks, Insider Monkey has formulated a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per annum since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .

Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, 2020’s unprecedented market conditions provide us with the highest number of trading opportunities in a decade. So we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. With all of this in mind let’s take a gander at the recent hedge fund action encompassing One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP).

What have hedge funds been doing with One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP)?

Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 20% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 4 hedge funds with a bullish position in OLP a year ago. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey,  Renaissance Technologies has the number one position in One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP), worth close to $15.4 million, amounting to less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which holds a $0.8 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that are bullish encompass Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Renaissance Technologies allocated the biggest weight to One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP), around 0.01% of its 13F portfolio. Winton Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.01 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to OLP.

Consequently, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, assembled the most outsized position in One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP). Millennium Management had $0.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management also made a $0.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP). These stocks are Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. (NYSE:GPMT), South Plains Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPFI), Hometrust Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HTBI), and Everi Holdings Inc (NYSE:EVRI). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to OLP’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $31 million. That figure was $18 million in OLP’s case. Everi Holdings Inc (NYSE:EVRI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand South Plains Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPFI) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 13.9% in 2020 through June 10th and still beat the market by 14.2 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on OLP as the stock returned 35.5% during the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

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