Exelixis, Inc. (EXEL) Soars Following Cancer Drug Trial Data, But Competition Looms

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What have hedge funds been doing with Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of ten of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish in this stock, a drop of two from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.

According to hedge fund intelligence website Insider Monkey, Mark Lampert‘s Biotechnology Value Fund / BVF Inc had the biggest position in Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL), worth close to $12.8 million, corresponding to 2.7% of its total 13F portfolio. The second-most bullish hedge fund manager was Graham Capital Management, led by Kenneth Tropin, holding a $5.9 million position; the fund had 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Similar peers that hold long positions comprise Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Given the positive trial data, Exelixis certainly looks like a good investment at this point. However, there is competition looming in the form of Opdivo, which was also shown to be more effective than Afinitor in phase 3 trial data also released today, and which was stopped early because the trial had already met its endpoint, though specific figures were not released. Thus, it’s difficult to recommend Exelixis at this point given the already meteoric rise of its shares this year.

Disclosure: None

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