Is EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) a good place to invest some of your money right now? We can gain invaluable insight to help us answer that question by studying the investment trends of top investors, who employ world-class Ivy League graduates, who are given immense resources and industry contacts to put their financial expertise to work. The top picks of these firms have historically outperformed the market when we account for known risk factors, making them very valuable investment ideas.
Is EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) going to take off soon? The best stock pickers are buying. The number of long hedge fund bets increased by 1 lately. Our calculations also showed that epr isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds. EPR was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 12 hedge funds in our database with EPR holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
Today there are numerous formulas shareholders have at their disposal to analyze their stock investments. A couple of the less utilized formulas are hedge fund and insider trading signals. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outpace the market by a very impressive margin (see the details here).
Let’s take a glance at the latest hedge fund action regarding EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR).
Hedge fund activity in EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR)
At Q3’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 8% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in EPR over the last 13 quarters. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management has the number one position in EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR), worth close to $15.5 million, corresponding to 2.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $11.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish comprise Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
Now, some big names have jumped into EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) headfirst. Hudson Bay Capital Management, managed by Sander Gerber, assembled the biggest position in EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR). Hudson Bay Capital Management had $2.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Frederick DiSanto’s Ancora Advisors also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) but similarly valued. These stocks are New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:NYCB), VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ:VEON), Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES), and First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to EPR’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NYCB | 12 | 66274 | 0 |
| VEON | 7 | 18060 | -3 |
| ARES | 15 | 305352 | 7 |
| FSLR | 14 | 294075 | -9 |
| Average | 12 | 170940 | -1.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $171 million. That figure was $57 million in EPR’s case. Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ:VEON) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ARES might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
