Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRE)?

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Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE:WRE) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late.

To most investors, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we look at the aristocrats of this group, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group oversees most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing equity investments, we have identified a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see the details here).

Washington Real Estate Investment Trust: Upside Potential After Dividend Cut

Just as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are many incentives for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the key action encompassing Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE:WRE).

What have hedge funds been doing with Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE:WRE)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -25% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the most valuable position in Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE:WRE). Renaissance Technologies has a $2.9 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $2.8 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that hold long positions include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management.

Seeing as Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE:WRE) has witnessed a declination in interest from the smart money, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely at the end of the year. Intriguingly, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw sold off the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, valued at close to $5.5 million in stock.. Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s fund, Bryn Mawr Capital, also said goodbye to its stock, about $2 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds at the end of the year.

How are insiders trading Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE:WRE)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time period, Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE:WRE) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE:WRE). These stocks are Equity One, Inc. (NYSE:EQY), EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR), Glimcher Realty Trust (NYSE:GRT), Alexander’s, Inc. (NYSE:ALX), and Northstar Realty Finance Corp. (NYSE:NRF). All of these stocks are in the reit – retail industry and their market caps are closest to WRE’s market cap.

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