LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (LPNT): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

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In the financial world, there are a multitude of indicators shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can beat the market by a solid margin (see just how much).

Just as necessary, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the world of equities. Obviously, there are many stimuli for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to discuss the latest info surrounding LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT).

LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (LPNT)

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

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -14% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Larry Robbins’s Glenview Capital had the most valuable position in LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT), worth close to $176.8 million, accounting for 1.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by David Dreman of Dreman Value Management, with a $33.4 million position; 1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Since LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT) has experienced bearish sentiment from upper-tier hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there were a few hedgies who sold off their positions entirely at the end of the second quarter. Intriguingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management dropped the biggest investment of all the hedgies we track, worth close to $13.1 million in stock, and David Keidan of Buckingham Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $7.8 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds at the end of the second quarter.

What have insiders been doing with LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT)?

Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT). These stocks are Amsurg Corp (NASDAQ:AMSG), Vanguard Health Systems, Inc. (NYSE:VHS), Community Health Systems (NYSE:CYH), Select Medical Holdings Corporation (NYSE:SEM), and Health Management Associates Inc (NYSE:HMA). All of these stocks are in the hospitals industry and their market caps match LPNT’s market cap.

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