This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Education Realty Trust, Inc. (EDR)

Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR) has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately.

At the moment, there are tons of indicators shareholders can use to monitor Mr. Market. Two of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of reasons for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the latest action encompassing Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR).

How have hedgies been trading Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 80% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the most valuable position in Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR), worth close to $34.5 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $4.3 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds have jumped into Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR) headfirst. HBK Investments, managed by David Costen Haley, initiated the most valuable position in Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR). HBK Investments had 0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Shane Finemore’s Manikay Partners also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new EDR investors: Peter Rathjens Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Thomas Bailard’s Bailard Inc.

How are insiders trading Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR). These stocks are Colonial Properties Trust Inc (NYSE:CLP), Sun Communities Inc (NYSE:SUI), Silver Bay Realty Trust Corp (NYSE:SBY), Associated Estates Realty Corporation (NYSE:AEC), and PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:PMT). This group of stocks belong to the reit – residential industry and their market caps resemble EDR’s market cap.