Here’s Why ClearBridge Investments Sold its Position in BioMarin (BMRN)

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy” second quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The second quarter was difficult for growth funds, and the fund underperformed the benchmark index. Only the consumer staples sector contributed positively to the fund’s performance. To know about the fund’s best picks in 2022, please check its top 5 holdings.

In the letter, ClearBridge Investments discussed its ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy portfolio. The fund exited BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) in the second quarter. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) is a biotechnology company, headquartered in San Rafael, California. The stock of BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN)  closed at $95.82 per share on August 5, 2022. One-month return of BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) rose to 7.64% and its shares gained 22.64% of their value over the last 52 weeks. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) has a market capitalization of $ 17.772billion.

Here is what ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy specifically said about BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) in its second-quarter investor letter:

“Another sale during the quarter was BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN), motivated by more attractive risk/reward opportunities elsewhere in the sector. We bought BioMarin in early 2018 after the launch of Vimizim (for Morquio syndrome) which made the company cash flow positive with a clear strategy for continued growth in orphan diseases. In late 2020, the FDA moved the goalpost from one to two years of data to approve BioMarin’s drug Valrox (Hemophilia A). However, the shares derated in late 2021 due to concerns around execution and commercial uptake as well as management issues. Given the opportunity cost of waiting for a takeout or an activist investor and thin remaining pipeline, we exited the position and redeployed the proceeds into higher growth areas in health care (i.e. diabetes, robotics, orthopedics). We continue to look for organic growers in the sector since health care should be less exposed to some of the inflationary pressures we see in other industries.”

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Our research shows that BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 56 hedge fund portfolios held BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) at the end of the first quarter which was 48 in the previous quarter.

We discussed BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) in another article and shared the top healthcare stocks to buy as per Michel Massoud’s Melqart Asset Management. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.