Should You Buy LaSalle Hotel Properties (LHO)?

Is LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO) going to take off soon? Money managers are getting more optimistic. The number of long hedge fund bets improved by 1 lately.

In the financial world, there are many metrics investors can use to watch Mr. Market. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can outclass the market by a solid margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of motivations for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a gander at the key action surrounding LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO).

What does the smart money think about LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO)?

At year’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 14% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the biggest position in LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO). Royce & Associates has a $16.6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, which held a $8.3 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have jumped into LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO) headfirst. SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, assembled the biggest position in LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO). SAC Capital Advisors had 8.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $1.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.

Insider trading activity in LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time period, LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO). These stocks are Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB), Strategic Hotels and Resorts Inc (NYSE:BEE), DiamondRock Hospitality Company (NYSE:DRH), Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc (NYSE:SHO), and RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ). This group of stocks are in the reit – hotel/motel industry and their market caps match LHO’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by the aforementioned strategies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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