Is First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (FR) A Good Stock To Buy?

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Waterfront Capital Partners, managed by Eduardo Abush, established the most outsized position in First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR). Waterfront Capital Partners had $16.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management also initiated a $6.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new FR positions are Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR). We will take a look at Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE:HPY), Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:GGAL), Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:HAWK), and China Biologic Products Inc (NASDAQ:CBPO). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble FR’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $184 million. That figure was $250 million in FR’s case. Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:HAWK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:GGAL) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard HAWK might be a better candidate to consider a long position.