The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 821 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, a week after the market trough. In this article we look at what those investors think of Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA).
Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA) investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. HTA was in 16 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with HTA holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that HTA isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
To most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be underperforming, old investment tools of years past. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, Our experts choose to focus on the bigwigs of this group, approximately 850 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people orchestrate the majority of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by watching their top investments, Insider Monkey has uncovered many investment strategies that have historically surpassed the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per year since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Sander Gerber of Hudson Bay Capital
At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, We take a look at lists like the 10 stocks that went up during the 2008 crash to identify the companies that are likely to deliver double digit returns in up and down markets. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. For example we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 in February after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Now we’re going to check out the new hedge fund action surrounding Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA).
How have hedgies been trading Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 45% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 19 hedge funds with a bullish position in HTA a year ago. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Citadel Investment Group was the largest shareholder of Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA), with a stake worth $32 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Citadel Investment Group was Millennium Management, which amassed a stake valued at $13.3 million. Waterfront Capital Partners, Balyasny Asset Management, and Echo Street Capital Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Waterfront Capital Partners allocated the biggest weight to Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA), around 1.63% of its 13F portfolio. Neo Ivy Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.8 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to HTA.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, assembled the largest position in Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA). Balyasny Asset Management had $12.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management also initiated a $7.3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new HTA investors: Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Ryan Tolkin (CIO)’s Schonfeld Strategic Advisors.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA) but similarly valued. These stocks are Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL), Apartment Investment and Management Co. (NYSE:AIV), Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (NYSE:JLL), and American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to HTA’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| EXEL | 30 | 935037 | 7 |
| AIV | 21 | 395202 | -3 |
| JLL | 26 | 660081 | -4 |
| AAL | 36 | 681734 | -5 |
| Average | 28.25 | 668014 | -1.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 28.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $668 million. That figure was $107 million in HTA’s case. American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Apartment Investment and Management Co. (NYSE:AIV) is the least popular one with only 21 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA) is even less popular than AIV. Hedge funds dodged a bullet by taking a bearish stance towards HTA. Our calculations showed that the top 10 most popular hedge fund stocks returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 13.3% in 2020 through June 25th but managed to beat the market by 16.8 percentage points. Unfortunately HTA wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was very bearish); HTA investors were disappointed as the stock returned 11.9% during the second quarter (through June 25th) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in 2020.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
