Is Winthrop Realty Trust (FUR) A Good Stock To Buy?

Concerns over a shift in Fed’s easy monetary policy have hit several hedge funds hard during the third quarter. A number of sectors are in correction territory. More importantly, Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) underperformed the larger S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 14 percentage points between June 25, 2015 and October 30, 2015. Hedge funds and institutional investors tracked by Insider Monkey usually invest a disproportionate amount of their portfolios in smaller cap stocks. We have been receiving indications that hedge funds were paring back their overall exposure and this is one of the factors behind the recent movements in major indices. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards Winthrop Realty Trust (NYSE:FUR).

Winthrop Realty Trust (NYSE:FUR) was in 23 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. FUR has experienced a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 24 hedge funds in our database with FUR holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare FUR to other stocks including CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE:CBZ), Shopify Inc (NYSE:SHOP), and Francesca’s Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:FRAN) to get a better sense of its popularity.

In the eyes of most investors, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, old investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, Our researchers choose to focus on the elite of this club, about 700 funds. These investment experts direct the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their finest investments, Insider Monkey has spotted several investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outrun the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per year for a decade in their back tests.

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the new action encompassing Winthrop Realty Trust (NYSE:FUR).

What have hedge funds been doing with Winthrop Realty Trust (NYSE:FUR)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -4% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Phillip Goldstein, Andrew Dakos and Steven Samuels’s Bulldog Investors has the biggest position in Winthrop Realty Trust (NYSE:FUR), worth close to $32.4 million, accounting for 14.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Halcyon Asset Management, led by John Bader, holding a $17 million position; 4.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other members of the smart money with similar optimism encompass Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management and Brian Sheehy’s Iszo Capital.

Seeing as Winthrop Realty Trust (NYSE:FUR) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedge funds that elected to cut their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, David M. Markowitz’s Oskie Capital Management cut the largest investment of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, worth about $6.4 million in stock, and John Reilly’s South Ferry Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $4.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Winthrop Realty Trust (NYSE:FUR). These stocks are CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE:CBZ), Shopify Inc (NYSE:SHOP), Francesca’s Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:FRAN), and Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to FUR’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $82 million. That figure was $134 million in FUR’s case. Francesca’s Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:FRAN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Shopify Inc (NYSE:SHOP) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Winthrop Realty Trust (NYSE:FUR) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.