At least two high-profile hedge fund firms have taken sizable stakes in small biotechnology firms in recent days. These positions were disclosed in 13Gs, meaning they are passive investments.
Citadel Advisors disclosed it owns 1.87 million shares of Inotek Pharmaceuticals Corp., or 6.5 percent of the total outstanding. At the end of the second quarter, the Chicago hedge fund firm owned fewer than 17,000 shares of the clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company.
D.E. Shaw disclosed it owns 5.44 million shares of Exact Sciences Corp., or 5 percent of the molecular diagnostics company.
The New York hedge fund firm also disclosed it owns 3.74 million shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, or 5.1 percent of the company which is engaged in developing so-called small-molecule drugs that can treat rare diseases.
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Dmitry Balyasny has bought a new mansion next door to his old mansion. According to the Chicago Tribune, the founder of Chicago-based Balyasny Asset Management recently shelled out $2.025 million for a 4,000 square-foot-home on Lake Michigan in Kenilworth, Illinois. In 2014, Balyasny paid $6.2 million for the property next door, which includes a four-bedroom, 4,249-square-foot home, according to the report. The paper also notes Balyasny is proposing to build an addition to the home he bought two years ago.
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Shares of Herbalife surged 4.6 percent to close at $63.30 after Carl Icahn reported late Friday that he boosted his stake in the multilevel marketer of nutrition products to 20.8 percent. Icahn paid $59.31 per share for the new shares. This is a setback for William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management, whose New York firm has a very large, well-documented but losing short on the stock.
Meanwhile, shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals, another major, high-profile Pershing Square long position, lost nearly 2 percent on Monday.
