Is Brookfield Property Partners LP (BPY) A Good Stock To Buy?

At Insider Monkey we track the activity of some of the best-performing hedge funds like Appaloosa Management, Baupost, and Glenview because we determined that some of the stocks that they are collectively bullish on can help us generate returns above the broader indices. Out of thousands of stocks that hedge funds invest in, small-caps can provide the best returns over the long term due to the fact that these companies are less efficiently priced and are usually under the radars of mass-media, analysts and dumb money. This is why we follow the smart money moves in the small-cap space.

Tupungato / Shutterstock.com

Tupungato / Shutterstock.com

Brookfield Property Partners LP (NYSE:BPY) has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. At the end of this article, we will also compare Brookfield Property Partners LP (NYSE:BPY) to other stocks including Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION), CoStar Group Inc (NASDAQ:CSGP), and Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (ADR) (NYSE:PAC) to get a better sense of its popularity.

At the moment there are a large number of metrics market participants put to use to value their stock investments. A pair of the best metrics are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can trounce the market by a significant amount (see the details here).

With all of this in mind, let’s check out the latest action surrounding Brookfield Property Partners LP (NYSE:BPY).

What have hedge funds been doing with Brookfield Property Partners LP (NYSE:BPY)?

At the end of Q3, a total of 7 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long in this stock, an increase of 40% from the second quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Renaissance Technologies, founded by Jim Simons, holds the most valuable position in Brookfield Property Partners LP (NYSE:BPY). Renaissance Technologies has a $3.8 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Murray Stahl of Horizon Asset Management, with a $3.5 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital, George Hall’s Clinton Group and John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have jumped into Brookfield Property Partners LP (NYSE:BPY) headfirst. Springbok Capital had $1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Clinton Group also made a $0.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BPY positions are Glenn Greenberg’s Brave Warrior Capital and Charles Goldblum’s Hurley Capital.

Let’s now check out hedge fund activity in other stocks -not necessarily in the same industry as Brookfield Property Partners LP (NYSE:BPY) but similarly valued. These stocks are Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION), CoStar Group Inc (NASDAQ:CSGP), Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (ADR) (NYSE:PAC), and RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM). This group of stocks’ market caps match Brookfield Property Partners LP (NYSE:BPY)’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
ZION 32 551496 -4
CSGP 18 140107 1
PAC 5 37695 -2
RPM 18 74560 -5

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $201 million. Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (ADR) (NYSE:PAC) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Brookfield Property Partners LP (NYSE:BPY) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.