Hedge Funds Are Selling Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (SKT)

Billionaire hedge fund managers such as Steve Cohen and Stan Druckenmiller can generate millions or even billions of dollars every year by pinning down high-potential small-cap stocks and pouring cash into these candidates. Small-cap stocks are overlooked by most investors, brokerage houses, and financial services hubs, while the unlimited research abilities of the big players within the hedge fund industry can easily identify the undervalued and high-potential stocks that reside the ignored corners of equity markets. There are numerous small-cap stocks that have turned out to be great winners, which is one of the main reasons the Insider Monkey team pays close attention to the hedge fund activity in relation to these stocks.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE:SKT) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most successful money managers recently. SKT was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 14 hedge funds in our database with SKT 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 Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY), Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (USA) (NYSE:RBA), and Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) to gather more data points.

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Hedge fund activity in Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE:SKT)

At Q3’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, down by 29% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards SKT over the last 5 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

HedgeFundSentimentChart

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Jeffrey Furber’s AEW Capital Management has the largest position in Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE:SKT), worth close to $56.9 million, accounting for 1.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Renaissance Technologies, one of the largest hedge funds in the world; with a $47.3 million position. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism comprise Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital, Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

Since Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE:SKT) has encountered falling interest from the smart money, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely heading into Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Israel Englander’s Millennium Management dropped the largest stake of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $1.4 million in stock. Glenn Russell Dubin’s fund, Highbridge Capital Management, also dropped its stock, about $1 million worth.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE:SKT) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY), Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (USA) (NYSE:RBA), Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN), and Compania Cervecerias Unidas S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:CCU). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to SKT’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
TDY 13 125132 3
RBA 16 183842 5
AZPN 17 434102 -2
CCU 10 52657 0

As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $199 million. That figure was $138 million in SKT’s case. Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Compania Cervecerias Unidas S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:CCU) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE:SKT) is even less popular than CCU. 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. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None