Should You Buy Vornado Realty Trust (VNO)?

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Based on the fact that hedge funds have collectively under-performed the market for several years, it would be easy to assume that their stock picks simply aren’t very good. However, our research shows this not to be the case. In fact, when it comes to their very top picks collectively, they show a strong ability to pick winning stocks. Between November 1, 2014 and October 30 of this year, less than 49% of the stocks in the S&P 500 beat the market. However, hedge funds’ top 30 stock picks from the index had a much higher success rate than this, at 63%. The returns from these 30 stocks also easily bested the broader market, at 9.5% compared to 5.2%, despite there being a few duds in there like Micron and Anadarko (even their collective wisdom isn’t perfect). The results show that there is plenty of merit to imitating the collective wisdom of top investors.

Is Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO) a buy here? Investors who are in the know are getting more bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets moved up by 3 lately. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG), Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M), and BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) to gather more data points.

Follow Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO)

With all of this in mind, we’re going to go over the fresh action regarding Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO).

What have hedge funds been doing with Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 15% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management has the biggest position in Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO), worth close to $119.1 million, comprising 3.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which holds a $90.4 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions include John Khoury’s Long Pond Capital,  AEW Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

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