Jim Simons’ Portfolio in 2022: Top 5 Stock Picks

4. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Renaissance Technologies’ Stake Value: $921.00 million

Percentage of Renaissance Technologies’ 13F Portfolio: 1.08% 

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 54

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) is a biopharmaceutical firm based in California. It posted earnings per share of $2.12 for the first quarter, beating estimates by $0.31. Its revenue for Q1 stood at $6.59 billion, which was above estimates by $309.4 million. The firm has grown its dividend yield for 6 years in a row, and offers an impressive yield of 4.57% as of May 20.

On May 16, Piper Sandler analyst Do Kim kept a ‘Neutral’ rating on Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) shares and decreased the firm’s price target to $69 from $73. The analyst expects the firm’s pipeline studies to resume in the next few weeks given that the FDA has lifted the clinical hold on enacapavir, allowing clinical studies to resume. Kim holds that the long-term opportunity around lenacapavir is intact.

54 hedge funds were long Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) at the close of the fourth quarter, up from 55 in the preceding quarter. The total value of Q4 hedge fund holdings stood at $2.36 billion. Arrowstreet Capital, with 18 million shares worth $1.07 billion, was the largest shareholder of the biopharmaceutical firm in the first quarter of 2022.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments had to say about Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Other pharma companies are providing solutions as well. Biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, sold under the brand name Veklury, is a broad-spectrum antiviral medication administered by intravenous infusion; it can shorten the time to recovery in hospitalized patients and reduce the risk of hospitalization and death in non-hospitalized patients.”