Is Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (UBA) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

It seems that the masses and most of the financial media hate hedge funds and what they do, but why is this hatred of hedge funds so prominent? At the end of the day, these asset management firms do not gamble the hard-earned money of the people who are on the edge of poverty. Truth be told, most hedge fund managers and other smaller players within this industry are very smart and skilled investors. Of course, they may also make wrong bets in some instances, but no one knows what the future holds and how market participants will react to the bountiful news that floods in each day. The S&P 500 Index gained 7.6% in the 12 month-period that ended November 21, while less than 49% of its stocks beat the benchmark. In contrast, the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks among the top hedge fund investors tracked by the Insider Monkey team returned 18% over the same period, which provides evidence that these money managers do have great stock picking abilities. That’s why we believe it isn’t a waste of time to check out hedge fund sentiment before you invest in a stock like Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA) .

Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with UBA positions at the end of September. At the end of this article we will also compare UBA to other stocks including Banc of California Inc (NYSE:BANC), Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE:ETH), and Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. (NYSE:TOO) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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We follow over 700 hedge funds and other institutional investors and by analyzing their quarterly 13F filings, we identify stocks that they are collectively bullish on and develop investment strategies based on this data. One strategy that outperformed the market over the last year involves selecting the 100 best-performing funds and identifying the 30 mid-cap stocks that they are collectively most bullish on. Over the past year, this strategy generated returns of 18%, topping the 8% gain registered by S&P 500 ETFs. We launched this strategy 2.5 years ago and it returned more than 39% since then, vs. 22% gain registered by the S&P 500 ETFs.

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Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at the key action surrounding Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA).

How are hedge funds trading Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, an increase of 33% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 6 hedge funds with a bullish position in UBA at the beginning of this year. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

UBA Chart

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Renaissance Technologies, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, holds the number one position in Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA). Renaissance Technologies has a $9.8 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is J. Alan Reid, Jr. of Forward Management, with a $4.4 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining professional money managers that are bullish consist of Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors. We should note that Forward Management is among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

Consequently, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Forward Management, led by J. Alan Reid, Jr., initiated the biggest position in Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA). Forward Management had $4.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also initiated a $3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new UBA investors: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA) but similarly valued. These stocks are Banc of California Inc (NYSE:BANC), Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE:ETH), Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. (NYSE:TOO), and Sun Hydraulics Corporation (NASDAQ:SNHY). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to UBA’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
BANC 21 77709 4
ETH 13 100214 -3
TOO 10 119379 0
SNHY 5 95714 -2

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $98 million. That figure was $24 million in UBA’s case. Banc of California Inc (NYSE:BANC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sun Hydraulics Corporation (NASDAQ:SNHY) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA) 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 BANC might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None