Allergan, Humana, Biogen: Billionaires’ Favorite Healthcare Stocks For Q3

#3 Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM)

– Number of Billionaires With Long Positions (as of June 30): 12

– Aggregate Value of Billionaires’ Holdings (as of June 30): $2.96 billion

Next up on our list is Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM), which is currently engaged in a bitter fight with the U.S. Department of Justice over its $37 billion merger with Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET). During the second quarter, the number of billionaire investors that we track long Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) came down by three and the aggregate value of their holdings in it shrank by $187 million. Nevertheless, during the same period, billionaire Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies upped its stake in the company by 59% to 706,800 shares. While Humana’s stock has been range-bound for more than a year now, it has been extremely volatile in 2016 and is currently trading flat for the year.

On July 21, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC attempting to block the Aetna/Humana merger. Following this news, both companies announced that they will challenge the lawsuit and criticized the government’s claims that their merger will have anti-competitive effects on the Medicare Advantage and Affordable Care Act markets. Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET) recently issued a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice in which it threatened that if the company’s proposed merger with Humana is blocked, it would cut its participation in Affordable Care Act (ACA) public exchanges by nearly 70%. Most analysts who track Humana have a favorable view of it currently, though some of them are cautioning their clients that now is not the best time to buy the stock.

#2 Shire PLC (ADR)(NASDAQ:SHPG)

– Number of Billionaires With Long Positions (as of June 30): 13

– Aggregate Value of Billionaires’ Holdings (as of June 30): $2.31 billion

Moving on, the popularity of Shire PLC (ADR)(NASDAQ:SHPG) among billionaire investors increased significantly during the second quarter, with the number of billionaires reporting a stake in the company rising by five and the aggregate value of their holdings in it jumping by 54.6%. Legendary hedge fund manager and billionaire Julian Robertson of Tiger Management initiated a stake in Shire PLC (ADR)(NASDAQ:SHPG) during the quarter, purchasing 120,554 shares of the company. At the beginning of this year, Shire PLC announced its $32 billion acquisition of Baxalta, which was completed in June. According to rumors on the Street, the company is following up that acquisition with an attempt at another, having made an $800 million bid for Novato-based, rare diseases-focused biopharmaceutical company Raptor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RPTP) recently. For its second quarter, Shire PLC reported EPS of $3.38 on revenue of $2.43 billion, topping analysts’ estimates of EPS of $3.03 on revenue of $2.28 billion.

#1 Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN)

– Number of Billionaires With Long Positions (as of June 30): 21

– Aggregate Value of Billionaires’ Holdings (as of June 30): $5.95 billion

Despite the number of billionaire investors with long positions in the company declining by six and the aggregate value of their holdings in it sinking by $3.15 billion during the second quarter, Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN) continued to remain the favorite healthcare stock of the billionaire investors tracked by Insider Monkey at the end of June. However, it lost its spot as the favorite stock overall among billionaire investors to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)  during that time. Dan Loeb (Third Point) was one of several billionaire investors that lowered their stake in Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN) during the April-to-June period, by 2% to 4.9 million shares.

The pharma giant lost a considerable amount of its market capitalization in April after it, along with Pfizer, announced the termination of their merger. Though its stock has recovered since then, it is still trading down by almost 20% year-to-date. A year after agreeing to sell its generics business to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA) for $40.2 billion, Allergan announced on August 2 that it is selling its Anda, Inc. distribution business to Teva for $500 million. On August 11, Allergan revealed that it has agreed to acquire private eye care company ForSight VISION5 for $95 million in cash and an undisclosed launch milestone payment related to its lead development program. According to analysts, the ForSight VISION5 acquisition will help Allergan to defend the market share of its eye care brands.

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