Broadfin Capital, LLC is a New York-based hedge fund, whose $1.28-billion equity portfolio is invested in healthcare companies. Kevin Kotler, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, has founded the hedge fund in 2005. Mr. Kotler’s top picks had an outstanding performance, with two of the three largest holdings, in Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) and Retrophin Inc (NASDAQ:RTRX), posting returns of around 100% for the first three months. In this article we will take a look at some of Mr. Kotler’s new picks, in which Broadfin disclosed new stakes in its latest 13F filing, namely Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR), Lion Biotechnologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LBIO), Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA) and Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS).
One of the main reasons for following equity portfolios of some of the best-performing hedge funds is because we believe that we can take some investment opportunities by analyzing the stocks in which these funds invest their capital. Even though the 13F filings of large investors are published with a significant delay, it does not offset opportunities to invest in the same stocks. We have been sharing the stock picks of our small-cap hedge fund strategy since the end of August 2012. Through March 11th, 2015 our small-cap strategy returned 132.0%. S&P 500 ETF (SPY) returned only 52.6% during the same period. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the market by 79.4 percentage points over this 2.5 year period. (read more details here)
As stated in the 13F filing, as of the end of March 2015, Broadfin Capital has a new position of 452,423 shares in Alere Inc. (NYSE:ALR). The new stake is valued at $22.12 million and represents 1.72% of the fund’s equity portfolio. Alere is a $4.36 billion company providing point-of-care professional diagnostics and health information solutions services. The financial results for the first quarter of 2015 showed $608.15 million in net revenues, which is 2.7% less than $625.20 million reported for the same period of 2014. Among the funds we track, Scopia Capital, managed by Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich and Iridian Asset Management, run by David Cohen and Harold Levy, have the biggest stakes in Alere Inc. (NYSE:ALR), equivalent to 5.18 million and 3.57 million shares, respectively.
Kevin Kotler has initiated a stake in Lion Biotechnologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LBIO), amounting to 1.06 million shares, valued at $12.87 million. The biotechnology company’s activity is about developing and commercializing adoptive cell therapy (ACT) for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and other types of solid cancers. Lion Biotechnologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LBIO) has a market cap of $488.37 million and registered a loss of $0.14 per share for the first quarter of 2015, versus a loss of $0.11 a year earlier. Other shareholders of Lion Biotechnologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LBIO), among the funds we track, include Daniel Gold’s QVT Financial and Baker Bros. Advisors, which initiated stakes with 1.33 million shares each during the first quarter.
Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA) represents another new acquisition of Broadfin Capital. Kotler’s new stake contains 1.04 million shares, valued at $12.28 million. Genocea Biosciences is a clinical-stage company, with a market cap of $264.92 million, which develops T cell vaccines and immunotherapies for a range of infectious diseases, cancers and autoimmune diseases. For the first quarter, Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA) posted a loss of $0.64 per share, which is $0.12 less, compared to the net loss per share posted for the same period of 2014. Among the funds we track, we found James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management with 844,257 shares, and Ghost Tree Capital, managed by Ken Greenberg And David Kim, with 420,000 shares of Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA).
Broadfin Capital also has a new position in Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS), a company interested in discovery, development and commercialization of LLO immunotherapies in the clinical stage. According to the most recent 13F filing, Kevin Kotler acquired 805,994 shares of the company, valued at $11.64 million. According to the financial report for the quarter ended on January 31, 2015, the company has registered $7.03 million in losses, or $0.33 per share, which is slightly lower than a loss of $0.37 per share a year earlier. Recently, Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS) has signed a collaboration with Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRNE) to evaluate combinations of Advaxis’s Lm-LLO cancer immunotherapy technology platform with Sorrento’s fully human antibodies targeting immune checkpoints. Adage Capital Management, run by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson and Bihua Chen’s Cormorant Asset Management are also shareholders of Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS) with stakes respectively valued at $74.21 million and $14.08 million.
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