Is GLPI Stock A Buy or Sell?

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 887 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of December 31st. In this article we look at what those investors think of Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (NASDAQ:GLPI).

Is GLPI stock a buy? Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (NASDAQ:GLPI) was in 33 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistic is 59. GLPI has seen an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. There were 30 hedge funds in our database with GLPI positions at the end of the third quarter. Our calculations also showed that GLPI isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).

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At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, the House passed a landmark bill decriminalizing marijuana. So, we are checking out this under the radar cannabis stock right now. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to buy to identify the next stock with 10x upside potential. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. With all of this in mind we’re going to review the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (NASDAQ:GLPI).

Do Hedge Funds Think GLPI Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

Heading into the first quarter of 2021, a total of 33 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 10% from the third quarter of 2020. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in GLPI over the last 22 quarters. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Zimmer Partners held the most valuable stake in Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (NASDAQ:GLPI), which was worth $134 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Gates Capital Management which amassed $122.3 million worth of shares. Long Pond Capital, Renaissance Technologies, and Citadel Investment Group were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Franklin Street Capital allocated the biggest weight to Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (NASDAQ:GLPI), around 4.96% of its 13F portfolio. Gates Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 3.68 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GLPI.

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names have jumped into Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (NASDAQ:GLPI) headfirst. Zimmer Partners, managed by Stuart J. Zimmer, assembled the most valuable position in Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (NASDAQ:GLPI). Zimmer Partners had $134 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Anthony Joseph Vaccarino’s North Fourth Asset Management also made a $10.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new GLPI investors: Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager, and Schonfeld Strategic Advisors.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (NASDAQ:GLPI). These stocks are Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB), Five Below Inc (NASDAQ:FIVE), Aramark (NYSE:ARMK), Formula One Group (NASDAQ:FWONK), Camden Property Trust (NYSE:CPT), Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC), and Trex Company, Inc. (NYSE:TREX). This group of stocks’ market values match GLPI’s market value.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 34.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $934 million. That figure was $825 million in GLPI’s case. Five Below Inc (NASDAQ:FIVE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Camden Property Trust (NYSE:CPT) is the least popular one with only 26 bullish hedge fund positions. Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (NASDAQ:GLPI) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for GLPI is 46.7. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 7.9% in 2021 through April 1st and surpassed the market again by 0.4 percentage points. Unfortunately GLPI wasn’t nearly as popular as these 30 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); GLPI investors were disappointed as the stock returned 4.6% since the end of December (through 4/1) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.

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