Sivik Global Healthcare’s Top Biotech Stock Picks For Q4

Sivik Global Healthcare is a Greenwich, Connecticut-based healthcare-focused hedge fund founded by Krishen Sud in 2006. In 2011, the fund merged with Traxis Partners LP to benefit from operating synergies. Mr. Sud holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and has over two decades of experience as an investment manager. The fund has recently submitted its 13F filing with the SEC for the reporting quarter ended September 30. According to the filing, Sivik’s US equity portfolio at the end of Septmeber was worth $206.19 million, a significant decline from $288.18 million that it was worth at the end of June. The filing also revealed that as of September 30, 93% of Sivik’s US equity portfolio was invested in stocks from the healthcare sector. Since Sivik specializes in investing in the healthcare space, in this article we are going to analyze the fund’s top five biotech stock picks at the end of the third quarter.

Most investors don’t understand hedge funds and indicators that are based on hedge funds’ activities. They ignore hedge funds because of their recent poor performance in the bull market. Our research indicates that hedge funds underperformed because they aren’t 100% long. Hedge fund fees are also very large compared to the returns generated and they reduce the net returns experienced by investors. We uncovered that hedge funds’ long positions actually outperformed the market. For instance the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among funds beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 53 percentage points since the end of August 2012. These stocks returned a cumulative of 102% vs. 49% gain for the S&P 500 Index (read more details). That’s why we believe investors should pay attention to what hedge funds are buying (rather than what their net returns are).

#5 Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN)

Shares Owned by Sivik Global Healthcare (as of September 30): 10,000 shares

Value of Holding (as of September 30): $4.651 Million

Let’s start with  pharmaceutical major Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) in which the fund initiated a stake during the third quarter itself by purchasing 10,000 shares. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) has been one of the best performing big pharmaceutical stocks this year with year-to-date gains of 37% currently. On November 8, the company along with Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY) announced that the pivotal Phase 3 study of ‘Sarilumab’, an investigational, human antibody against the IL-6 receptor has met its co-primary endpoints of improvements in symptoms and signs of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and improvements in physical function, and also its secondary efficacy endpoints. For the third quarter of fiscal 2015, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals reported EPS of $3.47 on revenue of $1.14 billion, compared to analysts’ expectation of EPS of $2.62 on revenue of $1.05 billion. Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom‘s Sectoral Asset Management had also initiated a stake in the company during the second quarter by purchasing 174,900 shares.

#4 Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Shares Owned by Sivik Global Healthcare (as of September 30): 55,000 shares

Value of Holding (as of September 30): $5.40 Million

Sivik Global Healthcare made use of the 15.8% correction that shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) experienced during the third quarter by adding an additional 39% or 15,500 shares of the company during that period. Even after suffering such a noteworthy decline, the stock of the company made an impressive recovering during October and currently trades up nearly 15% year-to-date. On Novemeber 6, Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)’s drug ‘Genvoya’, which is the world’s first TAF-based single-tablet HIV-1 treatment regimen, won approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Experts believe that this approval is a big win for the company because Genvoya has the potential to generate multi-billion dollar in sales for Gilead Sciences in the future. The company declared better than expected fiscal 2015 third quarter results on October 27, reporting EPS of $3.22 on revenue of $8.30 billion. Analysts had expected it to report EPS of $2.87 on revenue of $7.84 billion. John Armitage‘s Egerton Capital Limited more than quadrupled its stake in Gilead Sciences during the second quarter to nearly 4 million shares.