Should You Add Kimco Realty Corp (KIM) to Your Portfolio?

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Echo Street Capital Management initiated the most valuable position in Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM). Echo Street Capital Management had $1.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital also initiated a $1.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners, Michael Platt and William Reeves’ BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM) but similarly valued. These stocks are Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY), Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST), Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG), and Universal Health Services, Inc. (NYSE:UHS). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to KIM’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 33 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.21 billion. That figure was $58 million in KIM’s case. Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) is the least popular one with only 23 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM) is even less popular than FAST. 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