Is Cohen & Steers, Inc. (CNS) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

What’s a smart Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS) investor to do?

At the moment, there are many gauges shareholders can use to watch the equity markets. A duo of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS)

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of stimuli for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s important to analyze the newest info for Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS).

How have hedgies been trading Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the largest position in Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS), worth close to $49.4 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $34.8 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and John Zaro’s Bourgeon Capital.

Since Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS) has experienced bearish sentiment from the smart money’s best and brightest, logic holds that there was a specific group of fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely at the end of the second quarter. Intriguingly, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies cut the largest position of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at an estimated $1.9 million in stock, and Israel Englander of Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.2 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS). These stocks are WisdomTree Investments, Inc. (NASDAQ:WETF), Gamco Investors Inc. (NYSE:GBL), Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS), Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS), and Financial Engines Inc (NASDAQ:FNGN). This group of stocks belong to the asset management industry and their market caps resemble CNS’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
WisdomTree Investments, Inc. (NASDAQ:WETF) 16 0 0
Gamco Investors Inc. (NYSE:GBL) 5 0 0
Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS) 19 0 0
Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS) 13 0 0
Financial Engines Inc (NASDAQ:FNGN) 8 0 0

Using the results shown by our research, regular investors must always track hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS) is an important part of this process.

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Cohen & Steers, Inc. (CNS): The Risk Of Being A Niche Asset Shop

Should You Buy Cohen & Steers, Inc. (CNS)?

Hedge Fund Activity