What do Hedge Funds Think of Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (BXMT)?

Judging by the fact that Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT) has faced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that slashed their entire stakes heading into Q4. Intriguingly, Joshua Kaufman and Craig Nerenberg’s Brenner West Capital Partners dropped the largest stake of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $14.5 million in stock, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $12.4 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 6 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT) but similarly valued. These stocks are Portfolio Recovery Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA), Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE), HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY), and Impax Laboratories Inc (NASDAQ:IPXL). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to BXMT’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $384 million. That figure was $431 million in BXMT’s case. HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard AWAY might be a better candidate to consider a long position.