Here’s Why Miller Income Strategy Sold Medical Properties Trust (MPW)

Miller Value Partners, an investment management company, released its “Income Strategy” first-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the strategy returned 11.69% net of fees versus a 1.52% return for the benchmark, ICE BofA US High Yield Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

Miller Value Income Strategy featured stocks like Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) in the Q1 2024 investor letter. Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) is a self-advised real estate investment trust. On April 15, 2024, Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) stock closed at $4.7400 per share. One-month return of Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) was 7.73%, and its shares lost 43.37% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) has a market capitalization of $2.84 billion.

Miller Value Income Strategy stated the following regarding Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

“When the Strategy is performing well and valuations in the portfolio remain as low as they are, we are hesitant to make many changes. However, remaining vigilant against investment mistakes and constantly searching for ways to improve the portfolio are both critical components of the process. This past quarter, we eliminated two mistakes and two winners that were approaching fair value. After Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) announced yet another investment in a flailing tenant despite avowing to avoid the practice, we were forced to acknowledge our mistake and sell the stock.

Medical Properties Trust (MPW) was the top detractor for the quarter and the strategy exited. Tenant issues continued to plague the health care real estate investment trust (REIT) during the quarter, as management announced a $350MM write-down due to uncollected rent from its largest tenant, Steward Health Care System, while also agreeing to provide a new $60MM loan to Steward. Management later disclosed on the 4Q23 earnings call that Steward only paid approximately 25% of all rent and interest owed to Medical Properties Trust in 4Q23, but simultaneously announced it was negotiating a new bridge facility for the struggling tenant along with some of Steward’s asset backed lenders.”

A real estate CEO pointing to a hospital facility on a financial chart.

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) was held by 18 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 18 in the previous quarter, according to our database.

We previously discussed Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) in another article, where we shared the list of stocks receiving downgrades from analysts. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.