Jeffrey Furber‘s AEW Capital Management focuses on real estate and its latest 13F filing disclosed an equity portfolio worth $4.87 billion, 92% of which was allocated to the real estate sector. Founded in 1981, the fund actively manages portfolios in both public and private property markets. AEW’s equity portfolio is fairly concentrated with top ten holdings accounting for about 59% of the total value. While the turnover ratio for the first quarter remained relatively low at 8.89%, we have filtered out prominent holdings that saw the most significant percentage change during the first quarter of 2016.
At Insider Monkey, we track around 785 hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see more details about our small-cap strategy).
#5 Store Capital Corp (NYSE:STOR)
– Shares Owned by AEW Capital (as of March 31): 2.67 Million
– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $69.10 Million
During the first quarter AEW boosted its Store Capital Corp (NYSE:STOR) holding by 22%. So far this year the stock price of the $3.7 billion internally managed net-lease real estate investment trust is up by 14%, while commercial REITs have posted average gains of 8.4% during the same period. The company recently announced a $300 million long-term debt financing the proceeds of which will be used to reduce amounts outstanding under the Company’s unsecured credit facility and for general corporate purposes. With about 70.34 million shares, Howard Marks‘ Oaktree Capital Management was the largest stockholder of Store Capital Corp (NYSE:STOR) within our database at the end of December.
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#4 American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT)
– Shares Owned by AEW Capital (as of March 31): 1.99 Million
– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $79.46 Million
After having hiked its stake in American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT) by 28% on the quarter, AEW held about 4.38% of the retail REIT’s outstanding shares. In its financial results for the first quarter, the company delivered revenue of $70.73 million, which marked an increase of 7.1% year-over-year and was ahead of estimates by $0.31 million. On the other hand, Funds from operations (FFO) of $0.45 was in-line with the expectations. Although up by a modest 4% in the last twelve months, American Assets Trust’s shares have risen by 9% since the beginning of 2016. Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management boosted its stake in American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT) by 133% to 1.23 million shares during the fourth quarter.
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#3 Gramercy Property Trust (NYSE:GPT)
– Shares Owned by AEW Capital (as of March 31): 11.26 Million
– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $95.18 Million
AEW raised its stake in Gramercy Property Trust (NYSE:GPT) by a hefty 30% during the first three months of this year. The fund has held a stake in the $3.7 billion office REIT since the second quarter of 2014. The company recently bought a portfolio of 12 single-tenant net-lease industrial buildings for $115.2 million. The net operating income (NOI) for the first year is expected to be $9.4 million for an initial cap rate of 8.1%. So far this year Gramercy’s stock has rallied by more than 10%. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies held about 2.92 million shares of Gramercy Property Trust (NYSE:GPT) at the end of last year.
