Hedge Funds Are Buying Corporate Office Properties Trust (OFC)

Page 1 of 2

Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund interest lately.

To most traders, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the elite of this group, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by paying attention to their best investments, we have come up with a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outperformed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. There are many reasons for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the key action regarding Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC).

What have hedge funds been doing with Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 20% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC)According to our comprehensive database, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the largest position in Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC). Citadel Investment Group has a $25.1 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On Citadel Investment Group’s heels is Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, which held a $22.9 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers with similar optimism include Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management.

Now, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Carlson Capital, managed by Clint Carlson, assembled the most valuable position in Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC). Carlson Capital had 9.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. J. Alan Reid Jr.’s Forward Management also initiated a $3.3 million position during the quarter.

Insider trading activity in Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC). These stocks are Highwoods Properties Inc (NYSE:HIW), CommonWealth REIT (NYSE:CWH), Brookfield Canada Office Properties (NYSE:BOXC), American Realty Capital Trust Inc (NASDAQ:ARCT), and Mack Cali Realty Corp (NYSE:CLI). This group of stocks are the members of the reit – office industry and their market caps resemble OFC’s market cap.

Page 1 of 2