Has the Smart Money Found A Winner in Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (MPW)?

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Arrowstreet Capital created the most valuable position in Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW). The fund reportedly had $20.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Balyasny Asset Management also made a $15.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new MPW positions are Shane Finemore’s Manikay Partners, Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp, and George Hall’s Clinton Group.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Tribune Media Co (NYSE:TRCO), Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT), LATAM Airlines Group SA (ADR) (NYSE:LFL), and Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to MPW’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $659 million. That figure was $211 million in MPW’s case. Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand LATAM Airlines Group SA (ADR) (NYSE:LFL) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ALR might be a better candidate to consider a long position in now, but MPW is certainly one to watch.

Disclosure: None