This Metric Says You Are Smart to Sell AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (MITT)

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AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. MITT shareholders have witnessed a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 12 hedge funds in our database with MITT positions at the end of the previous quarter.

To most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, old financial tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation today, we at Insider Monkey look at the crème de la crème of this club, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their best investments, we have revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is another way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of motivations for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a peek at the latest action surrounding AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT).

What does the smart money think about AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -25% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT)According to our comprehensive database, John M. Angelo and Michael L. Gordon’s Angelo Gordon & Co had the most valuable position in AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT), worth close to $10.2 million, accounting for 0.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $6.9 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors, Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Seeing as AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT) has faced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of hedgies who sold off their entire stakes in Q1. Interestingly, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group said goodbye to the biggest stake of all the hedgies we key on, valued at about $3.5 million in stock.. Bruce Kovner’s fund, Caxton Associates LP, also cut its stock, about $2.3 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds in Q1.

Insider trading activity in AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time period, AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc (NYSE:MITT). These stocks are Crexus Investment Corp (NYSE:CXS), iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE:SFI), Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH), Apollo Commercial Real Est. Finance Inc (NYSE:ARI), and Excel Trust Inc (NYSE:EXL). This group of stocks are the members of the reit – diversified industry and their market caps match MITT’s market cap.

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