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Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V. (PLYA): Among HG Vora Capital Management’s Stock Picks For 2025

We recently compiled a list of the HG Vora Capital Management’s Stock Picks For 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V. (NASDAQ:PLYA) stands against the other stocks.

HG Vora Capital Management was founded in 2009 as a hedge fund specializing in investing in event-driven, credit, and distressed special situations. The New York-based hedge fund has more than $5 billion in assets under management and reported more than $1.3 billion in securities in its latest 13F filing. While it is not positioning itself as an activist fund, HG Vora Capital has engaged with companies’ management on several occasions. As we go through some of HG Vora Capital’s stock picks, we will see some examples of the interactions that the fund had or is having with the companies it’s invested in.

Parag Vora, the founder of HG Vora, is a seasoned investor with decades of experience. Prior to founding HG Vora, Parag worked at Silver Point Capital, focusing on distressed assets and event-driven opportunities. Before Silver Point, Parag served as a Vice President in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs, advising real estate and consumer companies on M&A and leveraged financing.

HG Vora usually holds a relatively concentrated portfolio. However, over the last several years, the fund’s equity portfolio somewhat scaled down. At the end of 2021, HG Vora held 24 positions with a total value of $2.79 billion, according to its 13F filing for the period. It’s worth mentioning that such fluctuations in portfolio size can be observed during previous years as well. The reduced equity portfolio size could be attributed to a more attractive debt market driven by higher interest rates or other catalysts. During a panel at the Global Alts 2023 event, Parag said that it was “an amazing time to own safer first-lien debt where you can make equity-like returns.”

In its Q4 2024 13F filing, HG Vora Capital reported ownership in 10 companies as of the end of 2024. In a subsequent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, HG Vora disclosed closing its only healthcare bet – ModivCare Inc (NASDAQ:MODV), in which it had previously held 1.0 million shares.

Currently, most companies in HG Vora Capital’s 13F portfolio are operating in the resort and casino industry. Most holdings are long-term investments that Parag Vora’s fund has been bullish on for at least three years.

Aerial view of the beachfront resort with a palm tree-lined beach.

Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V. (NASDAQ:PLYA)

Shares held by HG Vora Capital Management: 12.50 million

Value of Position: $158.13 million

Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V. (NASDAQ:PLYA) was added to HG Vora’s equity portfolio during the fourth quarter of 2018 and the stock advanced by more than 85% over the past six years. Recently, hospitality operator Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) announced reaching an agreement to acquire Playa Hotels for $13.50 per share or around $2.6 billion including $900 million of debt. The deal will provide Playa shareholders with a 40% premium to the stock price prior to the disclosure of exclusive discussions with Hyatt.

Hyatt plans to take an asset-light approach and if the acquisition is successful, it will try to sell Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V. (NASDAQ:PLYA)’s owned properties while securing management agreements. The asset-light strategy allows Hyatt to generate capital from sales of real estate, while also generating revenue from management fees and franchise agreements.

Overall PLYA ranks 3rd on our list of HG Vora Capital Management’s stock picks for 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of PLYA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PLYA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.

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

AI, Tariffs, Nuclear Power: One Undervalued Stock Connects ALL the Dots (Before It Explodes!)

Artificial intelligence is the greatest investment opportunity of our lifetime. The time to invest in groundbreaking AI is now, and this stock is a steal!

AI is eating the world—and the machines behind it are ravenous.

Each ChatGPT query, each model update, each robotic breakthrough consumes massive amounts of energy. In fact, AI is already pushing global power grids to the brink.

Wall Street is pouring hundreds of billions into artificial intelligence—training smarter chatbots, automating industries, and building the digital future. But there’s one urgent question few are asking:

Where will all of that energy come from?

AI is the most electricity-hungry technology ever invented. Each data center powering large language models like ChatGPT consumes as much energy as a small city. And it’s about to get worse.

Even Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, issued a stark warning:

“The future of AI depends on an energy breakthrough.”

Elon Musk was even more blunt:

“AI will run out of electricity by next year.”

As the world chases faster, smarter machines, a hidden crisis is emerging behind the scenes. Power grids are strained. Electricity prices are rising. Utilities are scrambling to expand capacity.

And that’s where the real opportunity lies…

One little-known company—almost entirely overlooked by most AI investors—could be the ultimate backdoor play. It’s not a chipmaker. It’s not a cloud platform. But it might be the most important AI stock in the US owns critical energy infrastructure assets positioned to feed the coming AI energy spike.

As demand from AI data centers explodes, this company is gearing up to profit from the most valuable commodity in the digital age: electricity.

The “Toll Booth” Operator of the AI Energy Boom

  • It owns critical nuclear energy infrastructure assets, positioning it at the heart of America’s next-generation power strategy.
  • It’s one of the only global companies capable of executing large-scale, complex EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) projects across oil, gas, renewable fuels, and industrial infrastructure.
  • It plays a pivotal role in U.S. LNG exportation—a sector about to explode under President Trump’s renewed “America First” energy doctrine.

Trump has made it clear: Europe and U.S. allies must buy American LNG.

And our company sits in the toll booth—collecting fees on every drop exported.

But that’s not all…

As Trump’s proposed tariffs push American manufacturers to bring their operations back home, this company will be first in line to rebuild, retrofit, and reengineer those facilities.

AI. Energy. Tariffs. Onshoring. This One Company Ties It All Together.

While the world is distracted by flashy AI tickers, a few smart investors are quietly scooping up shares of the one company powering it all from behind the scenes.

AI needs energy. Energy needs infrastructure.

And infrastructure needs a builder with experience, scale, and execution.

This company has its finger in every pie—and Wall Street is just starting to notice.

Wall Street is noticing this company also because it is quietly riding all of these tailwinds—without the sky-high valuation.

While most energy and utility firms are buried under mountains of debt and coughing up hefty interest payments just to appease bondholders…

This company is completely debt-free.

In fact, it’s sitting on a war chest of cash—equal to nearly one-third of its entire market cap.

It also owns a huge equity stake in another red-hot AI play, giving investors indirect exposure to multiple AI growth engines without paying a premium.

And here’s what the smart money has started whispering…

The Hedge Fund Secret That’s Starting to Leak Out

This stock is so off-the-radar, so absurdly undervalued, that some of the most secretive hedge fund managers in the world have begun pitching it at closed-door investment summits.

They’re sharing it quietly, away from the cameras, to rooms full of ultra-wealthy clients.

Why? Because excluding cash and investments, this company is trading at less than 7 times earnings.

And that’s for a business tied to:

  • The AI infrastructure supercycle
  • The onshoring boom driven by Trump-era tariffs
  • A surge in U.S. LNG exports
  • And a unique footprint in nuclear energy—the future of clean, reliable power

You simply won’t find another AI and energy stock this cheap… with this much upside.

This isn’t a hype stock. It’s not riding on hope.

It’s delivering real cash flows, owns critical infrastructure, and holds stakes in other major growth stories.

This is your chance to get in before the rockets take off!

Disruption is the New Name of the Game: Let’s face it, complacency breeds stagnation.

AI is the ultimate disruptor, and it’s shaking the foundations of traditional industries.

The companies that embrace AI will thrive, while the dinosaurs clinging to outdated methods will be left in the dust.

As an investor, you want to be on the side of the winners, and AI is the winning ticket.

The Talent Pool is Overflowing: The world’s brightest minds are flocking to AI.

From computer scientists to mathematicians, the next generation of innovators is pouring its energy into this field.

This influx of talent guarantees a constant stream of groundbreaking ideas and rapid advancements.

By investing in AI, you’re essentially backing the future.

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A New Dawn is Coming to U.S. Stocks

I work for one of the largest independent financial publishers in the world – representing over 1 million people in 148 countries.

We’re independently funding today’s broadcast to address something on the mind of every investor in America right now…

Should I put my money in Artificial Intelligence?

Here to answer that for us… and give away his No. 1 free AI recommendation… is 50-year Wall Street titan, Marc Chaikin.

Marc’s been a trader, stockbroker, and analyst. He was the head of the options department at a major brokerage firm and is a sought-after expert for CNBC, Fox Business, Barron’s, and Yahoo! Finance…

But what Marc’s most known for is his award-winning stock-rating system. Which determines whether a stock could shoot sky-high in the next three to six months… or come crashing down.

That’s why Marc’s work appears in every Bloomberg and Reuters terminal on the planet…

And is still used by hundreds of banks, hedge funds, and brokerages to track the billions of dollars flowing in and out of stocks each day.

He’s used this system to survive nine bear markets… create three new indices for the Nasdaq… and even predict the brutal bear market of 2022, 90 days in advance.

Click to continue reading…