Another Score For Baker Bros. As Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc (ANAC) Soars 65% Premarket On Crisaborole Trial Success

Hedge fund activity in Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ANAC)

Heading into the second quarter, a total of 26 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a decrease of 4% from one quarter earlier.

When looking at the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, Julian Baker and Felix Baker‘s Baker Bros. Advisors had the number one position in Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ANAC), as mentioned, holding 4.2 million shares worth close to $243.2 million, accounting for 2% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second was William Leland Edwards of Palo Alto Investors, with a $188.5 million position in 3.26 million shares; the fund manager had 9.3% of his 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism encompass Anders Hove and Bong Koh’s VHCP Management, Thomas Steyer’s Farallon Capital, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Because Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ANAC) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there were a few money managers that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Steve Cohen‘s Point72 Asset Management dropped the largest position of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, selling 1.56 million shares worth an estimated $50.45 million. Anand Parekh’s fund, Alyeska Investment Group, also said goodbye to its stock, about $10.46 million worth, made up of 324,465 shares.

As we can see, hedge funds were slightly bearish in the first quarter of the year. In this case, however, the massive potential upside to the stock because of the success of the Crisaborole trial, which has an enormous potential market, as well as the continued backing of Baker Bros., outweighs the sentiment hedge funds otherwise had for Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ANAC).

Disclosure: None