Should You Invest in Marriott International Inc (MAR)?

Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and famous investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds and investors’ positions as of the end of the third quarter. You can find write-ups about an individual hedge fund’s trades on several financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves and analyze what the smart money thinks of Marriott International Inc (NASDAQ:MAR) based on that data.

Marriott International Inc (NASDAQ:MAR) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund interest of late. A total of 48 funds from our database held shares of the company at the end of September, compared to 36 funds a quarter earlier.  At the end of this article we will also compare MAR to other stocks including ORIX Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:IX), Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK), and HCP, Inc. (NYSE:HCP) to get a better sense of its popularity.

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

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Now, we’re going to go over the recent action surrounding Marriott International Inc (NASDAQ:MAR).

Hedge fund activity in Marriott International Inc (NASDAQ:MAR)

Heading into the fourth quarter, 48 funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 33% from the second quarter of 2016. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Jonathon Jacobson’s Highfields Capital Management has the biggest position in Marriott International Inc (NASDAQ:MAR), worth close to $735.5 million, corresponding to 6.9% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Eagle Capital Management, led by Boykin Curry, holding a $614.4 million position; 2.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions consist of John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors  and John Khoury’s Long Pond Capital.