Healthcare-Focused Investor Sees Valeant’s Value at $50; Smart Money Mixed on Stock

When it comes to the smart money sentiment, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) is really a controversial story. From one point, we have 98 funds that held long positions in the company at the end of June, amassing over 29% of its outstanding stock. The sentiment is most likely to weaken in the next round of 13F filings. Among the biggest bulls, Jeff Ubben and Bill Ackman hold very big positions in Valeant. In its latest investor letter, Tiger Cub Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global mentioned Valeant among its top 10 holdings. Another Tiger Cub, Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital is also betting on Valeant, with Lone Pine’s Lone Cypress holding 3.9% of its assets invested in the company.

On the opposite side we have Barry Rosenstein of JANA Partners, who dumped his stake in Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) in September, although the company had been the top positive contributor to JANA’s portfolio since the beginning of the year. The investor said in his latest letter that the recent scrutiny related to some of Valeant’s practices make the company a political target and its business model could be “forced to change”.

Moreover, Larry Robbins of Glenview Capital also provided his take on Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) in his latest investor letter. The investor also doesn’t hold a position in the company and said that the company’s price increases are rather the results of “poor judgement” rather than of fraudulent activity. Therefore, the price has dropped more as a result of negative short-term sentiment (see full article).

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