Is First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR) an attractive investment now? Investors who are in the know are getting less bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets were trimmed by 1 lately.
In the eyes of most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as slow, old investment vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey look at the bigwigs of this group, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by monitoring their highest performing investments, we have formulated a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outperformed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).
Equally as key, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are a variety of incentives for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if you understand where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action encompassing First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR).
What does the smart money think about First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -7% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management had the most valuable position in First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR), worth close to $74.9 million, accounting for 1.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Robert Jaffe of Force Capital, with a $16.6 million position; 1.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Seeing as First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedge funds who sold off their positions entirely at the end of the first quarter. At the top of the heap, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management sold off the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, worth an estimated $0.9 million in stock.. David Costen Haley’s fund, HBK Investments, also dumped its stock, about $0.2 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds at the end of the first quarter.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR)?
Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR) 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 First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR). These stocks are CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE), DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE:DCT), Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS), Eastgroup Properties Inc (NYSE:EGP), and Potlatch Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH). This group of stocks are in the reit – industrial industry and their market caps match FR’s market cap.
