In two separate filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Armistice Capital, led by Steven Boyd, disclosed massively cutting its activist stake in Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:SPPI), while upping its passive stake in Antares Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:ATRS). Armistice Capital, which raised its position in Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPPI) in June to 4.42 million shares, has done an about-face, unloading a massive amount of shares of the company, lowering its stake to 991,010 shares. It reported holding just under 4.44 million shares as of June 30. The position now comprises 1.5% of the company’s common stock. In Antares Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:ATRS), the investor raised its stake to 8.06 million shares from 6.40 million shares held by the fund on June 30. The passive stake is equal to 5.2% of the company’s stock.
RAJ CREATIONZS / shutterstock.com
Armistice Capital is a value-oriented and event-driven fund that was launched in 2012 by Steven Boyd. During his first year, Mr. Boyd managed to return an impressive 48%. He has gained experience working for a number of investment firms, most recently as an associate at York Capital, as well as previously being a senior research analyst at Senator Investment Group. Mr. Boyd likes to invest money in healthcare and consumer discretionary stocks, and he recently diversified his portfolio to include technology and financial stocks as well.
Follow Steven Boyd's Armistice Capital
We pay attention to hedge funds’ moves because our research has shown that hedge funds are extremely talented at picking stocks on the long side of their portfolios. It is true that hedge fund investors have been underperforming the market in recent years. However, this was mainly because hedge funds’ short stock picks lost a ton of money during the bull market that started in March 2009. Hedge fund investors also paid an arm and a leg for the services that they received. We have been tracking the performance of hedge funds’ 15 most popular small-cap stock picks in real time since the end of August 2012. These stocks have returned 118% since then and outperformed the S&P 500 Index by over 60 percentage points (see the details here). That’s why we believe it is important to pay attention to hedge fund sentiment; we also don’t like paying huge fees.
Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:SPPI) is a $472.2 million market cap biotechnology company engaged in the development of drug products, with a primary focus in hematology and oncology. The company’s financial results for the second quarter were not overly impressive, with its product sales decreasing by 25% to $35.1 million. The company booked a loss of $2.3 million, or $0.04 per share, versus a loss of $3.6 million, or $0.06 per share, in the same period of last year. Shares of the company have decreased by 2.5% year-to-date. Last month, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:SPPI) announced that it inked an agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) of its planned Phase 3 clinical trial of apaziquone, which is the company’s novel, potent pro-drug. The trial will allow the company to further evaluate the intravesical use of apaziquone for the treatment of patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), as one or two instillations. Among the prominent investors of that company that we track is Kevin Kotler’s Broadfin Capital, which holds 2.65 million shares of Spectrum Pharmaceuticals as of June 30.
