Hedge Funds Cashing Out Of Columbia Property Trust Inc (CXP)

At the end of February we announced the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we predicted that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP).

Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund sentiment of late. Our calculations also showed that CXP isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

To most traders, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, old investment tools of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open today, Our researchers choose to focus on the crème de la crème of this club, about 850 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors orchestrate bulk of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by watching their unrivaled investments, Insider Monkey has come up with various investment strategies that have historically defeated Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outrun the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per year since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .

We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a glance at the key hedge fund action regarding Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP).

How are hedge funds trading Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP)?

Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -23% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 15 hedge funds with a bullish position in CXP a year ago. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

More specifically, Citadel Investment Group was the largest shareholder of Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP), with a stake worth $10.2 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Citadel Investment Group was Renaissance Technologies, which amassed a stake valued at $8.4 million. Millennium Management, Arrowstreet Capital, and 40 North Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position 40 North Management allocated the biggest weight to Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP), around 0.19% of its 13F portfolio. Forward Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.09 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CXP.

Due to the fact that Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP) has experienced declining sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there is a sect of hedge funds who were dropping their full holdings last quarter. Intriguingly, Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp said goodbye to the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $1.5 million in stock. Steve Cohen’s fund, Point72 Asset Management, also cut its stock, about $0.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 5 funds last quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP). These stocks are United Community Banks Inc (NASDAQ:UCBI), SPX Corporation (NYSE:SPXC), Redfin Corporation (NASDAQ:RDFN), and Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS). This group of stocks’ market valuations match CXP’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $95 million. That figure was $51 million in CXP’s case. Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand United Community Banks Inc (NASDAQ:UCBI) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 13.4% in 2020 through June 22nd but beat the market by 15.9 percentage points. Unfortunately CXP wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on CXP were disappointed as the stock returned 11.3% during the same time period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far this year.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.