Should You Sell First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (FR)?

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In the financial world, there are plenty of indicators market participants can use to analyze Mr. Market. Two of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can beat the market by a solid margin (see just how much).

Just as crucial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of incentives for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Thus, let’s analyze the latest info for First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR).

First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR)

How are hedge funds trading First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management had the largest position in First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR), worth close to $65.8 million, accounting for 1.3% of its total 13F portfolio. On Third Avenue Management’s heels is Force Capital, managed by Robert Jaffe, which held a $11.8 million position; the fund has 1.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Because First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR) has experienced dropping sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there were a few fund managers that slashed their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors dumped the largest stake of all the hedgies we key on, valued at an estimated $3 million in stock, and Matthew Hulsizer of PEAK6 Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $1.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

What have insiders been doing with First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time period, First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR). These stocks are CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE), DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE:DCT), Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS), Eastgroup Properties Inc (NYSE:EGP), and Potlatch Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH). All of these stocks are in the reit – industrial industry and their market caps match FR’s market cap.

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