Hedge Funds Abandon Life Storage Inc (LSI) in Droves: What Bearish Thesis Have They Uncovered?

We already know that not all hedge funds are bullish on the stock and some hedge funds actually got rid of their positions entirely. Interestingly, Stuart J. Zimmer’s Zimmer Partners got rid of the biggest position of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $33 million in stock. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s fund, Arrowstreet Capital, also cut its stock, about $19.7 million worth.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Life Storage Inc (NYSE:LSI). We will take a look at Corrections Corp Of America (NYSE:CXW), Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC), Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRL), and Olin Corporation (NYSE:OLN). This group of stocks’ market caps match LSI’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $451 million. That figure was $325 million in LSI’s case. Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Olin Corporation (NYSE:OLN) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Life Storage Inc (NYSE:LSI) is even less popular than OLN. 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 and why they rapidly gave up on it in Q3 after being so bullish in Q2.

Disclosure: None