Here’s Why Ventas, Inc. (VTR) Is in Spotlight on Thursday

David. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw initiated the most outsized position in Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR). D. E. Shaw had $6.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management also initiated a $1.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new VTR positions are Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR). These stocks are Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV), Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS), Brown-Forman Corporation (NYSE:BF), and Delphi Automotive PLC (NYSE:DLPH). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to VTR’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $672 million. That figure was $488 million in VTR’s case. Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR) 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 DFS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None