Hedge Funds Are Betting On AvalonBay Communities Inc (AVB)

How do we determine whether AvalonBay Communities Inc (NYSE:AVB) makes for a good investment at the moment? We analyze the sentiment of a select group of the very best investors in the world, who spend immense amounts of time and resources studying companies. They may not always be right (no one is), but data shows that their consensus long positions have historically outperformed the market when we adjust for known risk factors.

AvalonBay Communities Inc (NYSE:AVB) has experienced an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. AVB was in 24 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with AVB holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare AVB to other stocks, including SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY), Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE:HCN), and Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC) to get a better sense of its popularity.

At the moment there are many gauges market participants can use to appraise publicly traded companies. Some of the less utilized gauges are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top fund managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a superb margin (see the details here).

Now, let’s check out the latest action encompassing AvalonBay Communities Inc (NYSE:AVB).

What have hedge funds been doing with AvalonBay Communities Inc (NYSE:AVB)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, up by 9% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, AEW Capital Management, run by Jeffrey Furber, holds the most valuable position in AvalonBay Communities Inc (NYSE:AVB). According to its latest quarterly report, the fund has a $264.6 million position in the stock, comprising 6.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Renaissance Technologies, led by Jim Simons, holding a $150.4 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions consist of Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.