Are Beech Hill Advisors’ Top Biotech Stock Picks Poised For A Big Q4?

#3 AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV)

Shares Owned by Beech Hill Advisors (as of September 30): 68,842 shares

Value of Holding (as of September 30): $3.746 million

Moving on, biopharmaceutical major AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) lost nearly 20% of its market capitalization during the third quarter. However, shares of the company have recovered since the end of September and currently trade at a year-to-date loss of 4.08%. Even though the stock had such a drastic fall, Beech Hill Advisors held on to its conviction in the company, disposing of just 650 shares during that period. Recently shares of the company surged by more than 10% in a single day after it reported its third quarter results on October 30. Though the results were mixed, with EPS coming in at $1.13 on revenue of $4.90 billion (versus analysts’ expectations of EPS of $1.08 on revenue of $5.90 billion), the major reason for the stock’s surge was the forward guidance given by the company that stretched out until 2020. AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) expects that its annual sales will rise to $37 billion by 2020, which would represent a 10% year-over-year growth in sales. Larry Robbins‘ Glenview Capital increased its stake in AbbVie by 631% to over 17.85 million shares during the second quarter and became the largest shareholder of the company as of June 30 among the hedge funds we track.

#2 Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Shares Owned by Beech Hill Advisors (as of September 30): 41,165 shares

Value of Holding (as of September 30): $4.042 million

Owing to a more than 25% rise in its stock during the first half of the year, Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) is one of the few biotech stocks that’s currently trading with double digit (14.4%) gains this year. During the third quarter – when Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)’s stock lost 16.2% – Beech Hill Advisors sold 758 shares of the company. On November 5, a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted that one of the company’s bestselling Hepatitis C drugs, ‘Sovaldi’ can cause the heartbeat of patients to become abnormally slow and poses a risk to their lives. Experts believe that this report and its findings could cause the sales of Sovaldi to slow down. Gilead announced today that its treatment regimen, Genvoya, which is the world’s first TAF-based, single-tablet HIV-1 treatment regimen, has been approved by the FDA. The company declared better-than-expected third quarter results on October 27, reporting EPS of $3.22 on revenue of $8.30 billion. The consensus among analysts was for the company to report EPS of $2.87 on revenue of $7.84 billion. John Armitage‘s Egerton Capital Limited more than quadrupled its stake in the company to slightly less than 4.0 million shares during the second quarter.

Beech Hill’s top biotech stock pick is revealed on the final page.