Is it smart to be bullish on ovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS)?
Now, according to many investors, hedge funds are seen as useless, outdated investment tools of an era lost to time. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds trading today, this site aim at the moguls of this club, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the smart money’s total assets, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing investments, we’ve deciphered a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as crucial, positive insider trading activity is a second way to look at the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of reasons for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to study the newest info about Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS).
Hedge fund activity in Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS)
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the largest position in Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS). Fisher Asset Management has a $63 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $48.7 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
Judging by the fact that Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS) has faced bearish sentiment from upper-tier hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers who were dropping their full holdings in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw cut the largest position of all the hedgies we watch, valued at about $0.4 million in stock, and David Costen Haley of HBK Investments was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.4 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
How are insiders trading Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS)?
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS). These stocks are Eastgroup Properties Inc (NYSE:EGP), CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE), First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR), Potlatch Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH), and DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE:DCT). This group of stocks are the members of the reit – industrial industry and their market caps resemble SSS’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Eastgroup Properties Inc (NYSE:EGP) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE) | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR) | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Potlatch Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH) | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE:DCT) | 13 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results demonstrated by the previously mentioned studies, regular investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS) applies perfectly to this mantra.
