Do Hedge Funds Love Equity Residential (EQR)?

We already know that not all hedge funds are bullish on the stock and some hedge funds actually cashed in their positions entirely. At the top of the heap, D E Shaw, one of the biggest hedge funds in the world,cashed in the biggest stake of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $52.9 million in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) stock, and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $12.7 million worth of shares.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR). We will take a look at Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC), Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG), NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), and Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE:SE). This group of stocks’ market caps match EQR’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 36 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.10 billion. That figure was $794 million in EQR’s case. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE:SE) is the least popular one with only 25 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) is even less popular than SE. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None