Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (ANH) Anymore

Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. ANH has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with ANH holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation

If you’d ask most market participants, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the top tier of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by monitoring their best picks, we have found a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 trumped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of incentives for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a peek at the key action regarding Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH).

Hedge fund activity in Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH)

Heading into Q2, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Pine River Capital Management, managed by Brian Taylor, holds the most valuable position in Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH). Pine River Capital Management has a $57.8 million position in the stock, comprising 1.1% of its 13F portfolio. On Pine River Capital Management’s heels is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $19.8 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include George Soros’s Soros Fund Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and James Melcher’s Balestra.

Seeing as Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH) has witnessed bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there was a specific group of hedge funds who were dropping their positions entirely last quarter. Interestingly, Eric Halet and Davide Serra’s Algebris Investments said goodbye to the largest position of all the hedgies we monitor, valued at about $0.1 million in stock. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH). These stocks are AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT), Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET), Cousins Properties Inc (NYSE:CUZ), Crexus Investment Corp (NYSE:CXS), and iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE:SFI). This group of stocks are the members of the reit – diversified industry and their market caps are similar to ANH’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT) 9 0 1
Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET) 6 7 0
Cousins Properties Inc (NYSE:CUZ) 9 0 2
Crexus Investment Corp (NYSE:CXS) 12 0 0
iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE:SFI) 26 1 2

With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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