What Do Hedge Funds Think of Hospitality Properties Trust (HPT)?

Consequently, some big names have jumped into Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT) headfirst. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, assembled the most valuable position in Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT). Renaissance Technologies had $9.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management also made a $6.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new HPT investors: David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments and Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG), NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR), Molina Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:MOH), and AmeriGas Partners, L.P. (NYSE:APU). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to HPT’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 $408 million. That figure was $78 million in HPT’s case. NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand AmeriGas Partners, L.P. (NYSE:APU) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT) 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 NCR might be a better candidate to consider a long position.