Hedge Funds Have Never Been This Bullish On Simon Property Group, Inc (SPG)

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 873 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of June 30th. In this article we look at what those investors think of Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG).

Is Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG) the right investment to pursue these days? The best stock pickers were betting on the stock. The number of long hedge fund bets improved by 6 lately. Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG) was in 37 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of June. The all time high for this statistic was previously 32. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that SPG isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).

In today’s marketplace there are several gauges market participants put to use to size up their holdings. A duo of the most innovative gauges are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can beat the S&P 500 by a superb amount (see the details here). Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 185.4% since March 2017 (through August 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 79 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website.

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, we like undervalued, EBITDA-positive growth stocks, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging biotech stock. We go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. With all of this in mind let’s take a peek at the recent hedge fund action encompassing Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG).

Do Hedge Funds Think SPG Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At second quarter’s end, a total of 37 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 19% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 27 hedge funds with a bullish position in SPG a year ago. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

More specifically, Citadel Investment Group was the largest shareholder of Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG), with a stake worth $106.2 million reported as of the end of June. Trailing Citadel Investment Group was Holocene Advisors, which amassed a stake valued at $104.8 million. Citadel Investment Group, Zimmer Partners, and Millennium 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 Hill Winds Capital allocated the biggest weight to Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG), around 1.73% of its 13F portfolio. Zimmer Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 1.23 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to SPG.

Now, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, established the most outsized position in Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG). Two Sigma Advisors had $34.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Tananbaum’s GoldenTree Asset Management also made a $17.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SPG investors: Mark Coe’s Intrinsic Edge Capital, Richard SchimeláandáLawrence Sapanski’s Cinctive Capital Management, and Matthew Crandall Gilman’s Hill Winds Capital.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG). We will take a look at Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT), Aptiv PLC (NYSE:APTV), Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC), Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR), American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP), Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE:CARR), and Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble SPG’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 35.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1449 million. That figure was $666 million in SPG’s case. Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for SPG is 72.9. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 21.8% in 2021 through October 11th and still beat the market by 4.4 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on SPG as the stock returned 3.9% since the end of Q2 (through 10/11) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

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