Is Extra Space Storage, Inc. (EXR) A Good Stock To Buy According To Hedge Funds?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, created the largest position in Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR). Two Sigma Advisors had $7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Brad Dunkley and Blair Levinsky’s Waratah Capital Advisors also initiated a $6.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new EXR investors: Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR) but similarly valued. These stocks are CGI Group Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GIB), Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE:ADS), Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI), and Quest Diagnostics Inc (NYSE:DGX). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble EXR’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $780 million. That figure was $97 million in EXR’s case. Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE:ADS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand CGI Group Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GIB) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR) 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 ADS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.