Cohen & Steers' top brass is looking at long/short products as part of an effort to broaden its reach into the institutional market. Co-CEO Martin Cohen revealed the plans as part of a conference call with stock analysts on Friday.

"Our latest strategic initiative has been to add hedging capabilities, and we’ve got a very strong team there," he told analysts. "We mentioned in the past we are in the process of developing a long/short capability, which is very much desired in the institutional world.

He also pointed to the firm's large cap area as another possible growth spot with institutional investors. The firm currently claims $1.1 billion in large cap mandates, both in its fund (which turns three in August) and in separate accounts.

"The importance of that $1.1 billion is, I’d like to reiterate, we’ve mentioned this in the past, having critical mass now enables us to compete more effectively for large mandates. So we’ve reached a turning point here, which we are very, very, very optimistic about," he said.

Cohen also told analysts that the firm does not have any immediate plans to expand its staffing.

"Fortunately, we’ve built out our infrastructure over the past several years to a point where we now need few, if any, new hires. If we do expand our headcount in 2008, it will strictly be to expand our investment capabilities," he elaborated. 

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