Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital acquired 8.35 million shares of Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) on July 17, 2015, according to a recent 13G filing made by the hedge fund. The Tiger Cub now owns 5.4% of the common shares of the biopharmaceutical company.
Stephen Mandel is one of the many Tiger Cubs with their own firms now, having worked for Julian Robertson until 1997, when he left to establish Lone Pine Capital. According to Forbes’ Real-Time net worth estimator, Mr. Mandel has a net worth of $2.3 billion as of July 29, ranking him 284 in the list of billionaires within the United States. He is known for his excellent stock picking skills and follows a “bottom up” approach to selecting investments. At the end of the first quarter, Lone Pine Capital reported a public equity portfolio worth $26.42 billion, with the holdings of the investment manager being primarily in the information technology sector, followed by the consumer discretionary and finance sectors. His top ten stock holdings account for 43.32% of his overall portfolio value. Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) was the top equity investment of Lone Pine Capital at the end of the first quarter, as it held 1.33 million shares worth $1.55 billion of the online travel services provider.
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Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) is a specialty biopharmaceutical company that targets unmet medical requirements, with its portfolio including medications for inflammation, arthritis, and orphan diseases. The medical company was formed when Horizon Pharma acquired Vidara Therapeutics International plc in September 2014, with the resultant company being called Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP). Shares of Horizon are up by just under 200% year-to-date. The shares of Horizon Pharma closed 6.06% higher on July 28 after the company announced a partnership with Fox Chase Cancer Center, for the purposes of treating cancer. Jeffrey Sherman, Chief Medical Officer and executive vice-president of research and development at Horizon said, “Through this research, our goal is to gain a better understanding of the potential for ACTIMMUNE along with PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors in different patient populations and disease areas.”
Earlier last week, Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) improved its acquisition offer for Depomed Inc (NASDAQ:DEPO), with a new bid of $33.00 per share of the company. This bid indicates an increase of 12.80% from its previous offer for the small biopharmaceutical company, which rejected the earlier bid of $29.25.
The biopharmaceutical company announced estimated sales figures for its second quarter of net sales of $170 million to $172 million, expecting a growth of 160% as compared to the prior year period. In addition to record growth in net sales, Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) has greatly increased its annual guidance for fiscal 2015, with the company now expecting net sales of $660 million to $680 million against previous guidance of $590 million to $610 million. Timothy P. Walbert, CEO of Horizon Pharma, said, “Our expected second quarter sales results significantly exceed expectations, driven by rapidly accelerating prescription growth in our primary care and specialty business units and the continued addition of new patients to ACTIMMUNE® and RAVICTI®.” Horizon Pharma will announce its second quarter financial results on August 7, 2015.
The hedge funds tracked at Insider Monkey held a bullish outlook for the shares of Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) during the first quarter. The aggregate investments from hedge fund managers more than doubled to $1.23 billion at the end of the first quarter compared to investments of $597.56 million held three months earlier. However, as the value of shares more than doubled during the first quarter, there wasn’t actually much of an increase to their collective positions, despite the number of hedge fund managers investing in the company also jumping by 15 to 43 by the end of the quarter. James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management was the largest shareholder of the company in our database, with 12.79 million shares valued at $332.23 million at the end of the first quarter. Kevin Kotler’s Broadfin Capital, and Healthcor Management LP, led by Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey, were among the other major investors of the company.
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