In the meantime, activist Tom Sandell of Sandell Asset Management was pushing Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE:BKD) to spin-off its owned properties into a real estate investment trust throughout 2015. The widely-known activist said in 2015 that:
We are disappointed that the board has not committed to unlocking the significant value we believe is embedded in the company’s owned real estate portfolio, especially with senior living real-estate valuations at all-time highs.
Sandell Asset Management and Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE:BKD) reached an agreement in April 2015, under which the company appointed two new directors to its Board of Directors. This followed Sandell’s notice of its intention to nominate persons for election as directors at the company’s annual meeting of stockholders. Larry Robbins also seemed to agree that Mr. Sandell’s efforts in pushing for monetization of Brookdale’s real estate would create shareholder value. But does Brookdale Senior Living represent a good buying opportunity at the moment? The shares of the company are down by 60% over the past 12 months, which might have created attractive entry points for investors. Although the company’s bottom-line figures might have disappointed investors over the past several quarters, its strong revenue growth is definitely worth investors’ attention.
How are hedge funds trading Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE:BKD)?
At Q4’s end, a total of 57 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a decline of 14% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or had already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Glenview Capital holds the most valuable position in Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE:BKD). Glenview Capital has a $334.9 million position in the stock, comprising 1.9% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Visium Asset Management, led by Jacob Gottlieb, holding a $110.7 million position; 1.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions contain Thomas Ellis and Todd Hammer’s North Run Capital, Joshua Friedman and Mitchell Julis’ Canyon Capital Advisors, and Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management.
Since Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE:BKD) has witnessed declining sentiment from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of money managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely in the fourth quarter. At the top of the heap, Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners cut the largest position of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth close to $235.6 million in stock, while Robert Pitts’ Steadfast Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $82.3 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 9 funds in the fourth quarter.
The concluding page of this article discusses the hedge fund activity in several other companies with a market capitalization similar to BKD’s market value.
