Hedge funds run by legendary names like George Soros 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 outperformance. That’s why we pay special attention to hedge fund activity in these stocks.
Hedge fund interest in Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. At the end of this article we will also compare UBA to other stocks including The Gorman-Rupp Company (NYSEAMEX:GRC), Tidewater Inc. (NYSE:TDW), and Everi Holdings Inc (NYSE:EVRI) to get a better sense of its popularity. Our calculations also showed that UBA isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (see the video below).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
If you’d ask most traders, hedge funds are seen as worthless, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at present, We look at the moguls of this club, around 750 funds. These investment experts watch over most of the smart money’s total capital, and by observing their highest performing stock picks, Insider Monkey has discovered a few investment strategies that have historically defeated Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 index by around 5 percentage points per year since its inception in May 2014. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 25.7% since February 2017 (through September 30th) even though the market was up more than 33% during the same period. We just shared a list of 10 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Unlike former hedge manager, Dr. Steve Sjuggerud, who is convinced Dow will soar past 40000, our long-short investment strategy doesn’t rely on bull markets to deliver double digit returns. We only rely on hedge fund buy/sell signals. Let’s review the key hedge fund action encompassing Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA).
How are hedge funds trading Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA)?
Heading into the third quarter of 2019, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter of 2019. On the other hand, there were a total of 9 hedge funds with a bullish position in UBA a year ago. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA), which was worth $24.7 million at the end of the second quarter. On the second spot was AQR Capital Management which amassed $2 million worth of shares. Moreover, Two Sigma Advisors, Millennium Management, and Winton Capital Management were also bullish on Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
Since Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA) has experienced falling interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there exists a select few fund managers who sold off their positions entirely in the second quarter. Interestingly, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP dumped the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $0.2 million in stock. Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s fund, Springbok Capital, also dropped its stock, about $0 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA). These stocks are The Gorman-Rupp Company (NYSEAMEX:GRC), Tidewater Inc. (NYSE:TDW), Everi Holdings Inc (NYSE:EVRI), and Tenneco Inc (NYSE:TEN). This group of stocks’ market values match UBA’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| GRC | 7 | 39236 | 0 |
| TDW | 15 | 223006 | 0 |
| EVRI | 24 | 272248 | -2 |
| TEN | 12 | 113355 | -14 |
| Average | 14.5 | 161961 | -4 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 14.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $162 million. That figure was $30 million in UBA’s case. Everi Holdings Inc (NYSE:EVRI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand The Gorman-Rupp Company (NYSEAMEX:GRC) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 24.4% in 2019 through September 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 4 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on UBA as the stock returned 14.3% during the same time frame and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
