Maguire Properties: Pump Up the Volume

LOS ANGELES (TheStreet) -- Maguire Properties (MPG Quote) shares rallied sharply higher Wednesday on above-average volume after a regulatory filing showed that a hedge fund had accumulated more than 8% of the company's common shares.

Maguire Properties jumped after hedge fund Appaloosa Management said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it owns more than 4 million shares of the real-estate company, worth 8.39% of Maguire's shares outstanding.

Shares of Maguire Properties were jumping by 32 cents, or 13.9%, to $2.63. Earlier in the session, the stock touched an intraday high of $2.77 and is now higher by 80% for 2009. More than 4 million shares changed hands in the first 90 minutes of trading, compared to the stock's three-month average daily volume of 2.5 million, according to the Yahoo! Finance.

Maguire Properties has a 30 million-share float with a short interest float of 6.6% as of Sept. 25, according to Yahoo! Finance. More than 27% of the company's shares are held by insiders with another 39% owned by institutions.

Investor posts on Internet message boards noted that Appaloosa likely didn't buy up all 4 million shares in the last few sessions, but said the regulatory filing could lead to other hedge funds following Appaloosa into Maguire shares. Others argued that while there are other REITs to consider, Maguire is attractive as a turnaround in the California housing market could mean plenty of upside for shares.

Read more about today's high-volume stocks like Ziopharm Oncology in earlier "Pump Up the Volume" posts.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York.