Here is What Hedge Funds Think About American Assets Trust, Inc (AAT)

American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. AAT investors should be aware of a decrease in hedge fund interest recently. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with AAT positions at the end of the previous quarter.

If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the crème de la crème of this club, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the majority of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by watching their highest performing picks, we have determined a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).

David Shaw

Equally as key, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of stimuli for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a gander at the latest action regarding American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT).

What does the smart money think about American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -25% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Jeffrey Furber’s AEW Capital Management had the largest position in American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT), worth close to $43.5 million, comprising 1.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On AEW Capital Management’s heels is D. E. Shaw of D E Shaw, with a $10.8 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Seeing as American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT) has experienced declining sentiment from the smart money, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into Q2. Interestingly, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors dropped the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, comprising about $1 million in stock.. Jim Simons’s fund, Renaissance Technologies, also dropped its stock, about $0.7 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds heading into Q2.

How are insiders trading American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT) has experienced 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT). These stocks are Select Income REIT (NYSE:SIR), Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE:GOV), Franklin Street Properties Corp. (NYSEAMEX:FSP), Hudson Pacific Properties Inc (NYSE:HPP), and Parkway Properties Inc (NYSE:PKY). This group of stocks belong to the reit – office industry and their market caps are similar to AAT’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Select Income REIT (NYSE:SIR) 15 0 0
Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE:GOV) 12 0 1
Franklin Street Properties Corp. (NYSEAMEX:FSP) 2 1 0
Hudson Pacific Properties Inc (NYSE:HPP) 9 0 1
Parkway Properties Inc (NYSE:PKY) 11 2 0

With the returns demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and American Assets Trust, Inc (NYSE:AAT) is no exception.

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