Seattle Genetics Inc. (SGEN), Cerus Corporation (CERS): Baker Bros. Advisors’ Latest Moves

Baker Bros. Advisors, the fund managed by Julian and Felix Baker disclosed changes in two of its activist positions last Thursday. The firm continued to boost its exposure to Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN) by approximately 3.6%, to 25.2 million shares of common stock, and trimmed its stake in Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) by 1.8%, to 11.7 million shares of common stock. These stakes represent 20.3% and 15.0% of the companies’ shares outstanding, respectively.

Baker Bros. Advisors is a New York City-based hedge fund founded in the year 2000. The firm typically invests in the healthcare segment, which comprises 99.8% of its third quarter equity portfolio, worth about $7.9 billion.

Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN) is a $4.23 billion market cap biotechnology company that develops and commercializes monoclonal antibody-based therapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. The Baker brothers have been augmenting their wage on this company for a while now. Since the end of the third quarter, the fund already increased its exposure once. On this second occasion, it took its stake to 25.22 million shares, as the company’s pipeline continues to develop. The purchases were made for prices ranging from $32.56 per share to $34.95 per share.

Other major institutional investors betting on Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN) are Peter Kolchinsky’s RA Capital Management and Pasco Alfaro and Richard Tumure’s Miura Global Management. Both these funds started new positions in the company over the third quarter, with 5.38 million shares and 4.16 million shares, respectively.

Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) is a biomedical products company with a market cap of $363.1 million. It focuses on commercializing the INTERCEPT Blood System to enhance blood safety. As the stock price escalated over the past few days, Baker Bros. Advisors decided to sell some of its stock, reducing its stake to a 15.0% of the company. With such a large involvement in the company, one should not interpret this one as a bearish move, but rather as a chance of making some money out of their investment. In fact, despite this reduction, the fund continues to stand as the largest institutional investor, amongst those we track.

Also betting big on Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) are Samuel Isaly and Chuck Royce. Both of them upped their stakes over the third quarter, by 70% and 2%, respectively, and now own 7.18 million shares and 3.76 million shares, correspondingly.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any stocks or funds mentioned