How do we determine whether EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) makes for a good investment at the moment? We analyze the sentiment of a select group of the very best investors in the world, who spend immense amounts of time and resources studying companies. They may not always be right (no one is), but data shows that their consensus long positions have historically outperformed the market when we adjust for known risk factors.
EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. EPR was in 20 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of June. There were 17 hedge funds in our database with EPR holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that EPR isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
At the moment there are a large number of signals shareholders have at their disposal to assess publicly traded companies. A pair of the most useful signals are hedge fund and insider trading activity. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can trounce the market by a solid amount (see the details here).
Unlike some fund managers who are betting on Dow reaching 40000 in a year, our long-short investment strategy doesn’t rely on bull markets to deliver double digit returns. We only rely on hedge fund buy/sell signals. Let’s analyze the key hedge fund action regarding EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR).
How have hedgies been trading EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 18% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards EPR over the last 16 quarters. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Two Sigma Advisors was the largest shareholder of EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR), with a stake worth $31.5 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing Two Sigma Advisors was Weiss Asset Management, which amassed a stake valued at $27.7 million. Millennium Management, Renaissance Technologies, and Citadel Investment Group were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.
Consequently, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Weiss Asset Management, managed by Andrew Weiss, created the most valuable position in EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR). Weiss Asset Management had $27.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Andrew Weiss’s Weiss Asset Management also initiated a $17.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new EPR positions are Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, and Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:WH), Millicom International Cellular S.A. (NASDAQ:TIGO), Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX), and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF). All of these stocks’ market caps match EPR’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| WH | 40 | 878382 | 0 |
| TIGO | 5 | 119486 | 0 |
| KNX | 23 | 262916 | -10 |
| JEF | 34 | 677810 | -1 |
| Average | 25.5 | 484649 | -2.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $485 million. That figure was $172 million in EPR’s case. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:WH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Millicom International Cellular S.A. (NASDAQ:TIGO) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks (view the video below) among hedge funds returned 24.4% in 2019 through September 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 4 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on EPR, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 4.6% during the third quarter and outperformed the market.
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
