Hyatt Hotels Corporation (H): Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About It, Insider Sentiment Unchanged

Is Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) a good investment?

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are a multitude of methods market participants can use to monitor their holdings. Two of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can beat the S&P 500 by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as necessary, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to look at the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are many stimuli for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s important to discuss the recent info surrounding Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H).

What have hedge funds been doing with Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -29% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, John Khoury’s Long Pond Capital had the biggest position in Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H), worth close to $48.5 million, comprising 8.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Highfields Capital Management, managed by Jonathon Jacobson, which held a $36.7 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Because Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) has experienced bearish sentiment from upper-tier hedge fund managers, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers who were dropping their full holdings in Q1. Intriguingly, Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management said goodbye to the largest investment of all the hedgies we watch, totaling an estimated $11.6 million in stock. SAC Subsidiary’s fund, CR Intrinsic Investors, also said goodbye to its stock, about $4.8 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 5 funds in Q1.

How have insiders been trading Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H). These stocks are Marriott International Inc (NYSE:MAR), Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc (NYSE:HOT), Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:WYN), InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (ADR) (NYSE:IHG), and Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE). This group of stocks belong to the lodging industry and their market caps match H’s market cap.

Using the returns demonstrated by our research, average investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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