Should You Buy Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (HR)?

Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

In the financial world, there are tons of metrics shareholders can use to monitor publicly traded companies. Some 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 top investment managers can outperform the broader indices by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Just as important, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are a variety of incentives for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a peek at the recent action surrounding Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR).

How have hedgies been trading Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 83% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group had the most valuable position in Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR), worth close to $16.7 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $9 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Consequently, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Forward Management, managed by J. Alan Reid Jr., initiated the most valuable position in Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR). Forward Management had 7.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also initiated a $3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new HR positions are Peter Rathjens Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management.

What have insiders been doing with Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time period, Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR). These stocks are LTC Properties Inc (NYSE:LTC), National Health Investors Inc (NYSE:NHI), Omega Healthcare Investors Inc (NYSE:OHI), Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW), and Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA). This group of stocks are the members of the reit – healthcare facilities industry and their market caps are closest to HR’s market cap.