Israel Englander of Millennium Management has increased his stake in NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA) according to a recent 13G form filed with the SEC. The billionaire investor has added to his holding in the $2.33 billion medical device company, now owning 2.55 million shares, up from 1.45 million shares held on March 31. The stake now amasses 5.3% of NuVasive, Inc’s outstanding shares.
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In a recent meeting with Piper Jaffray’s Matt O’Brien, NuVasive, Inc. CFO Quentin Blackford said there was limited impact on the business due to the departures of COO Keith Valentine and CEO Alex Lukianov. He maintained that the revenue drivers are in place and the company expects to achieve or beat its sales target of $810M. Piper Jaffray is Overweight on the stock with a price target of $56, and O’Brien also believes the company or meet or beat its sales target.
Out of 700+ active hedge funds that are tracked by Insider Monkey, the interest in NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA) was increased slightly during the first quarter, with 29 funds having invested $403.17 million in the company at the end of March compared to 26 funds with $332.30 million invested at the end of 2014. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Samuel Isaly’s Orbimed Advisors are two of the biggest stockholders of NuVasive in our database, with holdings of 1.55 million and 1.07 million shares respectively.
Let’s take a quick look at the top picks of Englander now, who was most bullish on the finance, healthcare, and energy sectors heading into the second quarter. The top three positions of the fund as of the end of the first quarter were Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA), NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE), and American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP).
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A judge in Pennsylvania asked Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA) to drop law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP as its legal adviser concerning the ongoing Mylan Inc. (NASDAQ:MYL) acquisition talks. According to the judge, the law firm’s loyalty could be biased, having represented Mylan on previous drug approvals. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd’s $40 billion offer was rejected outright by Mylan NV paving the way for a three-way takeover battle between the two firms as well as Perrigo Company PLC Ordinary Shares (NYSE:PRGO), whom Mylan is attempting to acquire. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has hired Sullivan & Cromwell LLP to advise it on how to proceed with the matter.
