Medical Properties Trust Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:MPW)

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Traders bought 108,334 put options on the company. This is an increase of 69% compared to the typical volume of 64,121 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Medical Properties Trust from $8.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Colliers Securities downgraded Medical Properties Trust from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $10.00 to $4.25 in a research report on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Medical Properties Trust in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. They set a “sell” rating and a $2.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded Medical Properties Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Medical Properties Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $6.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Medical Properties Trust currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $5.48.

Medical Properties Trust Stock Performance

Medical Properties Trust stock opened at $3.99 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 2.26 and a current ratio of 2.26. The stock has a market cap of $2.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.24, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.20. Medical Properties Trust has a fifty-two week low of $2.92 and a fifty-two week high of $10.74.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Medical Properties Trust

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MPW. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Medical Properties Trust by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 87,046,765 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,840,168,000 after buying an additional 496,833 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Medical Properties Trust by 11.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,158,910 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $774,593,000 after buying an additional 3,800,294 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Medical Properties Trust by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,479,189 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $95,423,000 after buying an additional 1,049,687 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Medical Properties Trust by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,058,339 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $44,476,000 after acquiring an additional 448,118 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Medical Properties Trust by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,923,634 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $99,409,000 after acquiring an additional 1,387,675 shares during the period. 71.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Medical Properties Trust

Medical Properties Trust, Inc is a self-advised real estate investment trust formed in 2003 to acquire and develop net-leased hospital facilities. From its inception in Birmingham, Alabama, the Company has grown to become one of the world's largest owners of hospital real estate with 441 facilities and approximately 44,000 licensed beds as of September 30, 2023.