Should I Avoid Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (RHP)?

Hedge Funds and other institutional investors have just completed filing their 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing their equity portfolios as of the end of September. At Insider Monkey, we follow nearly 900 active hedge funds and notable investors and by analyzing their 13F filings, we can determine the stocks that they are collectively bullish on. One of their picks is Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP), so let’s take a closer look at the sentiment that surrounds it in the current quarter.

Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP) has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP) was in 21 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 30. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with RHP holdings at the end of June. Our calculations also showed that RHP isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV 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. Now we’re going to take a look at the recent hedge fund action encompassing Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP).

Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors

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

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -5% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in RHP over the last 25 quarters. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

The largest stake in Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP) was held by GAMCO Investors, which reported holding $110.6 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Citadel Investment Group with a $54.8 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Capital Growth Management, Taconic Capital, and Water Street Capital. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Capital Growth Management allocated the biggest weight to Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP), around 1.77% of its 13F portfolio. Sonic Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 1.63 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to RHP.

Judging by the fact that Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP) has experienced falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few money managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management sold off the biggest stake of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, valued at about $41.5 million in stock. Jason Mudrick’s fund, Mudrick Capital Management, also dropped its stock, about $5.9 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Abcam plc (NASDAQ:ABCM), Flywire Corporation (NASDAQ:FLYW), Wintrust Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:WTFC), Matterport Inc. (NASDAQ:MTTR), Highwoods Properties Inc (NYSE:HIW), Jamf Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:JAMF), and APi Group Corporation (NYSE:APG). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to RHP’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $663 million. That figure was $263 million in RHP’s case. APi Group Corporation (NYSE:APG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Abcam plc (NASDAQ:ABCM) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for RHP is 53.3. 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 29.6% in 2021 and still beat the market by 3.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on RHP as the stock returned 9.9% since the end of Q3 (through 12/31) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

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