Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) was in 26 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. EQR investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. There were 25 hedge funds in our database with EQR holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
In today’s marketplace, there are tons of indicators shareholders can use to monitor publicly traded companies. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can outperform the market by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Just as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are many stimuli for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors know where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a look at the latest action encompassing Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR).
How are hedge funds trading Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 26 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 4% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly.
Of the funds we track, Jeffrey Furber’s AEW Capital Management had the biggest position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR), worth close to $241.4 million, accounting for 6% of its total 13F portfolio. On AEW Capital Management’s heels is D. E. Shaw of D E Shaw, with a $210.2 million position; the fund has 0.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Christian Leone’s Luxor Capital Group, John Khoury’s Long Pond Capital and Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Luxor Capital Group, managed by Christian Leone, assembled the most outsized position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR). Luxor Capital Group had 83.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Moradi’s Anthion Management also made a $12.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new EQR positions are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, John Khoury’s Long Pond Capital, and William Michaelcheck’s Mariner Investment Group.
How have insiders been trading Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR). These stocks are Camden Property Trust (NYSE:CPT), UDR, Inc. (NYSE:UDR), Plum Creek Timber Co. Inc. (NYSE:PCL), American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC), and AvalonBay Communities Inc (NYSE:AVB). This group of stocks belong to the reit – residential industry and their market caps match EQR’s market cap.
