Hospitality Properties Trust (HPT): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

What’s a smart Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT) investor to do?

In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of metrics market participants can use to track the equity markets. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can outperform the broader indices by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as necessary, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the stock market universe. Obviously, there are many stimuli for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s study the latest info for Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT).

Hedge fund activity in Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT)

At Q2’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 78% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.

According to our 13F database, Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management had the largest position in Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT), worth close to $45.9 million, accounting for 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is J. Alan Reid Jr. of Forward Management, with a $44 million position; 3.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Steve Shapiro’s Intrepid Capital Management Inc DE.

As one would understandably expect, particular hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, established the biggest position in Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT). Pzena Investment Management had 45.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management also made a $44 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new HPT investors: David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Steve Shapiro’s Intrepid Capital Management Inc DE.

What have insiders been doing with Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT)?

Insider buying is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time frame, Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT). These stocks are Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE:TCO), Regency Centers Corp (NYSE:REG), Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE:SKT), Weingarten Realty Investors (NYSE:WRI), and CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE:CBL). This group of stocks are the members of the reit – retail industry and their market caps are similar to HPT’s market cap.