Is Equity Residential (EQR) A Good Stock To Buy?

Judging by the fact that Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of money managers that elected to cut their entire stakes heading into Q4. Intriguingly, Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management dropped the biggest investment of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $34.4 million in stock, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $13 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) but similarly valued. These stocks are Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Johnson Controls, Inc. (NYSE:JCI), DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), and Banco Bradesco SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBD). All of these stocks’ market caps match EQR’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 46.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2296 million. That figure was $684 million in EQR’s case. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Banco Bradesco SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBD) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) 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 YHOO might be a better candidate to consider a long position.