Hedge Funds Are Buying Health Care REIT, Inc. (HCN)

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have been driving this bullishness. AEW Capital Management, managed by Jeffrey Furber, established the largest position in Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE:HCN), worth an estimated $173.2 million at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies has also established his $149.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new HCN investors: Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE:HCN). We will take a look at Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC), Perrigo Company (NYSE:PRGO), General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP), and Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to HCN’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 40 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.79 billion. That figure was just $581 million in HCN’s case. Perrigo Company (NYSE:PRGO) is the most popular stock in this table, while General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP) is at the other end of the specter with only 27 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE:HCN) is even less popular than GGP. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed 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.