How do you pick the next stock to invest in? One way would be to spend hours of research browsing through thousands of publicly traded companies. However, an easier way is to look at the stocks that smart money investors are collectively bullish on. Hedge funds and other institutional investors usually invest large amounts of capital and have to conduct due diligence while choosing their next pick. They don’t always get it right, but, on average, their stock picks historically generated strong returns after adjusting for known risk factors. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the recent hedge fund activity surrounding Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG).
Is Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG) worth your attention right now? Hedge funds are getting more optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund bets improved by 2 lately. At the end of this article, we will also compare Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG) to other stocks, including Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX), Telefonica S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TEF), and America Movil SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:AMX) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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Today, there are numerous signals stock market investors can use to evaluate their stock investments. Two of the less utilized signals are hedge fund and insider trading signals. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can beat the broader indices by a superb amount (see the details here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at the key action encompassing Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG).
How have hedgies been trading Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG)?
Heading into Q4, a total of 30 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, an increase of 7% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Jeffrey Furber’s AEW Capital Management has the biggest position in Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG), worth close to $501 million, corresponding to 11.7% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Millennium Management, led by Israel Englander, holding a $113.6 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other professional money managers that hold long positions contain D E Shaw, Renaissance Technologies, and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have jumped into Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG) headfirst. Soros Fund Management assembled the most valuable position in Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG). Soros Fund Management had $16.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Harding’s Winton Capital Management also made a $14 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG) investors: David S. Winter and David J. Millstone’s 40 North Management, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, and Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management Group.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG). These stocks are Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX), Telefonica S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TEF), America Movil SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:AMX), and Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (ADR) (NYSE:RBS). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG)’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| TWX | 69 | 4320751 | 1 |
| TEF | 5 | 10456 | -1 |
| AMX | 12 | 239063 | -2 |
| RBS | 6 | 7977 | -7 |
As you can see, these stocks had an average of 23 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.15 billion. That figure was $1.17 million in Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG)’s case. Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Telefonica S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TEF) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG) 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, Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
