Top Hedge Fund Moves: A Look At Emanuel Friedman & Daniel Och's Latest Bullish Moves In Small-Caps

Tracking hedge funds moves is central to many investment strategies, as it may provide with interesting, research-backed ideas. So, let’s take a look at some of the most relevant transactions in the past couple of days.

Emanuel J. Friedman

Emanuel J. Friedman’s EJF Capital is bullish on micro-cap bank holding company Westfield Financial, Inc. WFD. On Friday, the fund disclosed that it had more than doubled its exposure to the stock.

The firm had declared holding 456,082 as of the end of the last reported quarter – second quarter of 2015. However, in its latest 13G filing, EJF acknowledged beneficial ownership of 949,169 shares of the company’s Common Stock, representing 5.13 percent of the total shares outstanding.

This makes of EJF Capital the third larges institutional investor in Westfield Financial, only outranked by the Vanguard Group and Dimensional Fund Advisors, which last said they held 1,049,871 shares and 1,556,717 shares, respectively.

Another major hedge fund betting on this company is Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, which held 912,989 shares, worth more than $6.6 million, as of the end of the second quarter.

Daniel S. Och

On Thursday, Daniel S. Och's OZ Management also disclosed a bullish move. After a 44.8 percent increase in its stake, the fund declared holding 14,900,545 shares of SouFun Holdings Ltd SFUN, a small-cap Chinese real estate Internet portal operator.

The position, which represents 5.09 percent of the total outstanding stock, makes of the firm the second largest institutional shareholder in the company, only surpassed by Davis Selected Advisers, which owns about 20,845,523 shares.

Among hedge funds, Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management’s position should be highlighted, as it comprised –as of June 30- 12,509,034 shares of the company, worth more than $105 million.