Is LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT) was in 19 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. LPNT has seen an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. There were 13 hedge funds in our database with LPNT positions at the end of the previous quarter.

LIFEPOINT HOSPITALS INC

In the financial world, there are tons of metrics market participants can use to watch publicly traded companies. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can trounce the market by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of incentives for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action encompassing LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT).

How have hedgies been trading LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 46% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Glenview Capital, managed by Larry Robbins, holds the biggest position in LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT). Glenview Capital has a $91 million position in the stock, comprising 1.3% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is David Dreman of Dreman Value Management, with a $32 million position; the fund has 0.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital, Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners and SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Clough Capital Partners, managed by Charles Clough, established the biggest position in LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT). Clough Capital Partners had 19 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors also initiated a $17 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Keith Meister’s Corvex Capital, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, and Steven Tananbaum’s GoldenTree Asset Management.

Insider trading activity in LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT)

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns shown by our research, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT) is no exception.

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