Do Hedge Funds Love HCP, Inc. (HCP)?

Since HCP, Inc. (NYSE:HCP) has faced falling interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there was a specific group of hedgies who sold off their positions entirely heading into Q4. It’s worth mentioning that David Harding’s Winton Capital Management said goodbye to the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $10 million in stock. Navellier & Associates, also dropped its stock, about $1.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to HCP, Inc. (NYSE:HCP). These stocks are Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX), Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA) (NYSE:POT), Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO), and Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG). This group of stocks’ market caps match HCP’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 28 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $700 million. That figure was $265 million in HCP’s case. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) is the most popular stock in this table, while Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) is the least popular one with only 22 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks HCP, Inc. (NYSE:HCP) is even less popular than PAYX. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies mentioned in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.