Trellus Management Added These 5 Stocks to Its Portfolio in Q2

Trellus Management Company LLC, a U.S.-based equity hedge fund started by Adam Usdan in January 1994, is one of the few investment firms that has already submitted its 13F filing for the June quarter. Mr. Usdan began his investment career in 1987 at Odyssey Partners, where he was in charge of managing long/short U.S. pools of capital by specializing in the small-to-mid-cap space.

New York-based Trellus Management Company employs an “opportunistic and elastic” investment style that seeks to identify securities that are under-the-radar. “We try to find companies that will emerge as leaders in the future”, said Mr. Usdan several years ago. The asset manager oversees a $61.48 million-portfolio as of the end of the second quarter, with its top ten holdings accounting for 53% of the value of that portfolio. Having this in mind, let’s lay out a list of five new positions added to Trellus Management’s portfolio during the June quarter.

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#5. Opko Health Inc. (NASDAQ:OPK)

 – Shares Owned by Trellus Management Company (as of June 30): 68,000

 – Value of Trellus Management Company’s Holding (as of June 30): $635,000

Trellus Management Company acquired a stake of 68,000 shares of Opko Health Inc. (NASDAQ:OPK) during the second quarter of 2016, which were valued at $635,000 on June 30. In late-June, the diversified healthcare company, viewed as a smart acquirer of undiscovered and under-priced biotech assets, agreed to acquire clinical stage biotechnology company Transition Therapeutics Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:TTHI) in an all-stock transaction valued at $60 million. The acquisition offers Opko Health important drug candidates with great market potential for the treatment of several diseases and disorders, including diabetes and obesity. The transaction is anticipated to close during the second half of 2016. Transition Therapeutics has two late stage drug candidates: TT401, a once- or twice-weekly oxyntomodulin for type 2 diabetes and obesity; and TT701, a once-daily oral selective androgen receptor modulator for androgen deficiency. Opko shares are down by a little less than 2% year-to-date. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management owns 37,826 shares of Opko Health Inc. (NASDAQ:OPK) as of June 30.

#4. Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA)

 – Shares Owned by Trellus Management Company (as of June 30): 5,376

 – Value of Trellus Management Company’s Holding (as of June 30): $848,000

The New York-based equity hedge fund added a 5,376-share position in Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA) to its pool of holdings during the second quarter. The position was worth $848,000 at the end of June and accounted for 1.4% of the value of the fund’s equity portfolio. The manufacturer of high-end tools and equipment to professional tool users has seen the value of its stock decrease by 6% since the start of 2016. Snap-on’s net sales for the first quarter of 2016 were $834.2 million, up by 0.8% year-over-year. Meanwhile, organic sales, which exclude foreign currency translation impacts and acquisition-related sales, grew by 2.5% year-over-year. The company’s net earnings increased by $17.8 million or $0.29 per diluted share to $128.3 million or $2.16 per diluted share. Snap-on shares are currently changing hands at around 16.0-times expected earnings, slightly below the forward P/E multiple of 16.6 for the industrials sector. John W. Rogers’ Ariel Investments was the owner of nearly 681,000 shares of Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA) at the end of March.

Let’s head to the next page of this article where we’ll reveal three other stocks added to Trellus Management’s portfolio during the second quarter.