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

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “SMID Cap Growth Strategy” first quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy outperformed in the first quarter as their preference for sturdy fundamentals and value-creating management teams provided ballast amid rising speculation in newly public risk assets favored on online message boards. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.

ClearBridge Investments, in its Q1 2021 investor letter, mentioned BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN), and shared their insights on the company. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. is a Novato, California-based biotechnology company that currently has a $14.1 billion market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, BMRN delivered a -11.52% return, while its 12-month returns are down by -30.23%. As of June 01, 2021, the stock closed at $77.69 per share.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments has to say about BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. in its Q1 2021 investor letter:

“The Strategy closed out of five positions (including BioMarin). We sold BioMarin Pharmaceutical after a number of its clinical catalysts had played out.”

Our calculations show that BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN) does not belong in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As of the end of the first quarter of 2021, BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. was in 43 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 51 funds in the fourth quarter of 2020. BMRN delivered a 1.97% return in the past 3 months.

The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 231.2% between 2015 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 126 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds’ poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Here you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.

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