5 Healthcare Stocks Near the Top of Cheyne Capital’s Portfolio

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA)

– Shares Owned by Cheyne Capital (as of June 30): 40,000

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $2 Million

Moving on, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA) was a new entrant to Cheyne Capital’s equity portfolio during the second quarter. Shares of the Israeli drug major have declined considerably since making their lifetime high of $71.08 around this time last year and are currently trading down by 20% year-to-date, which has helped increase the annual dividend yield of the company to 2.55%. Last month the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA)’s acquisition of Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN)’s generic pharma unit, following which the completion of the $40.5 billion deal was announced last week. On August 4, Teva Pharmaceutical reported its second quarter results, declaring EPS of $1.25 on revenue of $5 billion, topping analysts’ expectations of EPS of $1.20 on revenue of $4.86 billion. John Zaro‘s Bourgeon Capital upped its holding in Teva Pharmaceutical by 22% to 66,200 shares during the second quarter.

LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN)

– Shares Owned by Cheyne Capital (as of June 30): 128,315

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $6.45 Million

LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN) was the only stock among Cheyne Capital’s five largest healthcare holdings in which the fund reduced its stake during the second quarter, by 45%. However, despite that, the company climbed four spots to become Cheyne Capital’s fifth-largest holding at the end of June. The United Kingdom-based medical technology company had its IPO last October, following which its stock started drifting lower. That downtrend in the stock ended last month, when it started rising swiftly in anticipation of the company’s second quarter results. Owing largely to that recent rise, the stock is currently trading with marginal gains this year. LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN) reported second quarter EPS of $0.87 on revenue of $321 million, beating analysts’ EPS estimate by $0.15 and their consensus revenue estimate by $8.36 million. Following the earnings release, analysts at Piper Jaffray reiterated their ‘Overweight’ rating on the stock while upping their price target on it to $70 from $59 on August 5, which represents a potential upside of 15.8%. There were 23 hedge funds in our database which held a position in LivaNova at the end of the second quarter, owning 18.30% of its shares in aggregate.

Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR)

– Shares Owned by Cheyne Capital (as of June 30): 2.55 Million

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $35.21 Million

After having initiated a stake in Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) during the first quarter, Cheyne Capital proceeded to boost it by 11% during the second quarter. Shares of the medical diagnostics company spiked by 45% in early-February after Abbott (NYSE:ABT) announced that it had agreed to acquire Alere for $56 per share or $5.8 billion in an all-cash deal. However, the stock has given up all of those gains in the last few months after the company delayed filing its 2015 annual report and rumors of Abbott (NYSE:ABT) pulling out of the acquisition started surfacing. At the end of last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Alere is facing a criminal probe over its Medicare and Medicaid billing. On August 8, the same day that the company filed its delayed 2015 results and revised its financial filings for the last two years, CNBC reported that Abbott (NYSE:ABT) is indeed planning to cancel its deal with Alere by taking the latter to court over its control issues. Another hedge fund that increased its stake in Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) during the second quarter was billionaire Mario Gabelli‘s GAMCO Investors, which upped its holding by 7% to 528,225 shares.

Disclosure: None