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At the end of March 2019, Marshall Wace held the most valuable position in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS), the biggest producer of vaccinations and medicine for livestock and pets that was once a part of the world’s biggest drug maker, Pfizer. The company has a market cap of $54.81 billion, while trading at a P/E ratio of 40.04. Year-to-date, its stock price gained 34.43%, and on July 1st, it had a closing price of $113.57. For the first quarter of 2019, Zoetis reported revenues of $1.46 billion and diluted EPS of $0.65, compared to revenues of $1.37 billion and diluted EPS of $0.72 for the same quarter of 2018. On July 1st, Bank of America downgraded its rating on the stock to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ with a price target of $120.00, while about a week earlier Craig Hallum increased its price target to $132.00 from $114.00 with a ‘Buy’ rating on it. At the end of the quarter, Marshall Wace held 3.78 million Zoetis shares that were worth $380.51 million, comprising 2.39% of its 13F portfolio.
Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) was the fund second biggest holding at the end of the quarter, worth $345.52 million, counting 9 million shares outstanding. This position amassed 2.17% of its diversified portfolio. Boston Scientific Corporation is a medical device manufacturer with a market cap of $59.24 billion. Over the last 12 months, its stock gained 27.64% and on July 1st it closed with a price of $42.90. Its P/E ratio is 33.29. In its last financial report for Q1 2019, the company reported net sales of $2.49 billion and net income per common share-assuming dilution of $0.30, versus net sales of $2.38 billion and net income per common share-assuming dilution of $0.21 in the first quarter of the prior year. On June 27, Stifel Nicolaus raised its price target on the stock to $46.00 from $44.00 with ‘In-Line’ rating on the stock.
The third largest stake the fund held in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) worth $315.64 million, counting 7.43 million shares, accounting for 1.98% of the fund’s equity portfolio.
Marshall Wace’s most valuable quarterly portfolio addition was bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) in which the fund attained $74.88 million worth a position, by obtaining 475,962 shares. Bluebird bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that works on inventing new changing gene therapies for treating cancer and various genetic illnesses. The company has a market cap of $7.14 billion, and over the last six months, its stock gained 28.94%, closing with $128.30 on July 1st. The second in the line of big new positions during Q1 2019, was Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (NYSE:TAK), one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies by revenue and the largest in Asia. Takeda has a market cap of $55.02 billion, and it is trading at a P/E ratio of 21.76. Since the beginning of the year, its stock has gained 4.93%, and on July 1st it had a closing price of $17.65. During Q1 2019, Marshall Wace purchased 1.96 million Takeda’s shares, establishing in that manner a position that was worth $60.38 million, comprising 0.37% of its 13F portfolio. The third biggest addition to its portfolio was Worldpay, Inc. (NYSE:WP), a Cincinnati, Ohio-based payment processing company with a market cap of $39.41 billion. The fund acquired 530,533 Worldpay’s shares with a value of $60.22 million.
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This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
