Legendary investors such as Leon Cooperman and Seth Klarman earn enormous amounts of money for themselves and their investors by doing in-depth research on small-cap stocks that big brokerage houses don’t publish. Small cap stocks -especially when they are screened well- can generate substantial outperformance versus a boring index fund. That’s why we analyze the activity of those successful funds in these small-cap stocks. In the following paragraphs, we analyze Brixmor Property Group Inc (NYSE:BRX) from the perspective of those successful funds.
Brixmor Property Group Inc (NYSE:BRX)’s investors should pay attention to a slight decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 17 funds tracked by Insider Monkey long Brixmor Property Group at the end of September, down by one compared to the end of June. However, the level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc (NYSE:HII), Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD), and Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE:VAR) to gather more data points.
Follow Brixmor Property Group Inc. (NYSE:BRX)
Follow Brixmor Property Group Inc. (NYSE:BRX)
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action surrounding Brixmor Property Group Inc (NYSE:BRX).
How have hedgies been trading Brixmor Property Group Inc (NYSE:BRX)?
At the end of the third quarter, 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long Brixmor Property Group Inc (NYSE:BRX), down by 6% over the quarter. By comparison, 11 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in BRX heading into this year. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies has the biggest position in Brixmor Property Group Inc (NYSE:BRX), worth close to $87.4 million, comprising 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Forward Management, led by J. Alan Reid, Jr., which holds a $11.3 million position; 0.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining professional money managers that are bullish include David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group. We should note that Forward Management is among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.
We already know that not all hedge funds are bullish on the stock and some hedge funds actually sold off their positions entirely. It’s worth mentioning that Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP sold off the biggest stake of the 700 funds studied by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $46.6 million in stock. George Hall’s fund, Clinton Group, also sold off its stock, worthy about $8.9 million.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Brixmor Property Group Inc (NYSE:BRX) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc (NYSE:HII), Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD), Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE:VAR), and Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc (NYSE:Q). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble BRX’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| HII | 32 | 600672 | 1 |
| RAD | 54 | 1302618 | 4 |
| VAR | 15 | 187765 | -2 |
| Q | 34 | 1253724 | -3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 34 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $836 million. That figure was $166 million in BRX’s case. Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE:VAR) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Brixmor Property Group Inc (NYSE:BRX) 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 Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
