Acorda Therapeutics Inc (ACOR)’s Shares Jump After Dismissal Of Patent Challenge From Hedge Fund Manager Kyle Bass

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The shares of Acorda Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ACOR) are trading 13.16% higher today after the dismissal of a patent challenge against the company. Kyle Bass of Hayman Advisors was leading the group challenging two patents held by the pharmaceutical firm for its Multiple Sclerosis drug, Ampyra. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office review board rejected the petitions, saying that they would not prevail if granted a review. According to the Wall Street Journal, the patent challenges were filed by an organization setup by Mr. Bass called the Coalition for Affordable Drug Prices. The organization has filed patent challenges against several other biopharmaceutical companies as well, including Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) and Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB). An earlier report from the WSJ mentioned a strategy employed by Mr. Bass under which he would bet against the companies whose patents appeared to be weak and make profits upon the collapsing of the stock.

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Professional investors like Bass spend considerable time and money conducting due diligence on each company they invest in, which makes them the perfect investors to emulate. However, we also know that the returns of hedge funds on the whole have not been good for several years, underperforming the market. We analyzed the historical stock picks of these investors and our research revealed that the small-cap picks of these funds performed far better than their large-cap picks, which is where most of their money is invested and why their performances as a whole have been poor. Why pay fees to invest in both the best and worst ideas of a particular hedge fund when you can simply mimic the best ideas of the best fund managers on your own? A portfolio consisting of the 15 most popular small-cap stock picks among the funds we track has returned 118% and beaten the market by more than 60 percentage points since the end of August 2012 (see the details).

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The shares of Acorda Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ACOR) have declined by 19.54% year-to-date and are trading at $32.77 per share, as of the reporting period. In addition to Bass, other members of the smart money tracked by Insider Monkey also maintained a bearish outlook on the stock of Acorda Therapeutics. 16 hedge funds held aggregate positions worth $127.90 million as of June 30, with the number of hedgies holding stakes in the biopharmaceutical firm declining by four and aggregate holdings dropping by 8.41% during the second quarter, despite positive movement in the shares of the company during the period.

Insider activity is another important parameter that can help in identifying profit-making opportunities for an investor. The insiders of Acorda Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ACOR) were selling their stock as well, with at least eight insider sales in 2015. Enrique Carrazana, Chief Medical Officer at Acorda Therapeutics, has sold 97,993 shares of the company in 2015. It should be noted however that insider sales can’s be considered bearish activity, as shares could be sold for a variety of reasons.

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