Hedge Funds Are Piling Into Ventas, Inc. (VTR)

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 have processed the filings of the more than 866 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their March 31st holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.

Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR) was in 27 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 29. There were 18 hedge funds in our database with VTR positions at the end of the fourth quarter. Our calculations also showed that VTR isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s monthly stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, economists warn of inflation flare up. So, we are checking out this backdoor gold play that has hit peak gains of 718% in a little over a year. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Keeping this in mind let’s analyze the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR).

Do Hedge Funds Think VTR Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At Q1’s end, a total of 27 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 50% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in VTR over the last 23 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Healthcor Management LP, managed by Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey, holds the number one position in Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR). Healthcor Management LP has a $61.3 million position in the stock, comprising 2.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Camber Capital Management, led by Stephen DuBois, holding a $48 million position; 1.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions comprise Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Land & Buildings Investment Management allocated the biggest weight to Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR), around 2.88% of its 13F portfolio. Healthcor Management LP is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 2.17 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to VTR.

Now, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Camber Capital Management, managed by Stephen DuBois, assembled the most valuable position in Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR). Camber Capital Management had $48 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also initiated a $5.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Andrew Weiss’s Weiss Asset Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR). We will take a look at Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR), Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF), Burlington Stores Inc (NYSE:BURL), Dover Corporation (NYSE:DOV), 10x Genomics, Inc. (NASDAQ:TXG), Discovery Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA), and Trimble Inc. (NASDAQ:TRMB). This group of stocks’ market caps match VTR’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 30 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1133 million. That figure was $231 million in VTR’s case. Discovery Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand 10x Genomics, Inc. (NASDAQ:TXG) is the least popular one with only 23 bullish hedge fund positions. Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for VTR is 45.9. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 24% in 2021 through July 9th and beat the market by 6.7 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on VTR, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 10.8% since the end of Q1 (through July 9th) and outperformed the market.

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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.