What Do Hedge Funds Think of Retail Properties of America Inc (RPAI)?

Is Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI) a good place to invest some of your money right now? We can gain invaluable insight to help us answer that question by studying the investment trends of top investors, who employ world-class Ivy League graduates, who are given immense resources and industry contacts to put their financial expertise to work. The top picks of these firms have historically outperformed the market when we account for known risk factors, making them very valuable investment ideas.

Is Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI) a healthy stock for your portfolio? The smart money is betting on the stock. The number of long hedge fund bets improved by 1 lately. RPAI was in 17 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with RPAI holdings at the end of the previous quarter. 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 ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD), Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE:OI), and Companhia Brasileira de Distrib. (ADR) (NYSE:CBD) to gather more data points.

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Now, let’s check out the latest action surrounding Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI).

How are hedge funds trading Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 6% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the largest position in Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI). Renaissance Technologies has a $37.4 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $16.5 million position; less than 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish comprise D E Shaw, John Khoury’s Long Pond Capital and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have jumped into Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI) headfirst. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, assembled the biggest position in Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI). Balyasny Asset Management had $4.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. George Hall’s Clinton Group also initiated a $0.4 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new RPAI position is Brad Dunkley and Blair Levinsky’s Waratah Capital Advisors.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI) but similarly valued. We will take a look at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD), Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE:OI), Companhia Brasileira de Distrib. (ADR) (NYSE:CBD), and Radian Group Inc (NYSE:RDN). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble RPAI’s market valuation.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
ACAD 24 933851 -2
OI 24 813587 -11
CBD 8 31216 -1
RDN 33 864463 2

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $661 million. That figure was $116 million in RPAI’s case. Radian Group Inc (NYSE:RDN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Companhia Brasileira de Distrib. (ADR) (NYSE:CBD) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE:RPAI) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard RDN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.