Billionaire Larry Robbins’ Biggest Q2 Moves in Healthcare Stocks

#2 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

– Shares Owned by Glenview Capital (as of June 30): 2.86 Million

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $422.33 Million

Moving on, Glenview Capital lowered its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 20% during the second quarter. However, the popularity of Thermo Fisher Scientific among funds covered by Insider Monkey saw a significant rise during that time with its ownership rising by seven to 57 funds and the aggregate value of their holdings in it swelling by $351 million to $2.79 billion. The medical devices company has been one of the best large-cap stocks in the healthcare space since the last four years, delivering returns of over 200% during that time. Since Glenview Capital has held a stake in the company since 2006, it is quite possible that the fund’s decision to reduce its stake in the company was merely a profit booking exercise. While Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)’s has recently seen a minor correction after making its lifetime earlier this month, most analysts believe that the stock will continue its upward trajectory going forward. The 19 leading analysts and research firms on Wall Street who track the stock currently have an average rating of ‘Buy’ and an average price target of $171.13, which represents a potential upside of around 11%. Richard Chilton‘s Chilton Investment Company upped its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 20% to 516,127 shares during the April-June period.

#1 Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM)

– Shares Owned by Glenview Capital (as of June 30): 8.66 Million

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $1.56 Billion

With Glenview Capital increasing its stake in Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) by 34% during the second quarter, the Medicare giant continued to remain the fund’s largest equity holding at the end of that period. Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an antitrust suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC in order to block Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM)’s $33 billion merger with Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET). Following this news both the companies issued statements criticizing the DOJ’s move and recently Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET) has threatened to pull out of Obamacare if this merger is blocked. While some industry experts are currently skeptical of this merger deal going through, analysts who track both the stocks still have conviction that the merger will get completed eventually. On August 3, Humana Inc reported its fiscal 2016 second quarter numbers, declaring EPS of $2.30 on revenue of $14 billion for that period versus analysts’ expectation of EPS of $2.23 on revenue of $13.59 billion. The popularity of Humana Inc  among funds covered by us remained largely unchanged during the second quarter as 64 hedge funds reported owning a stake in it at the end of June, the same number that had a stake in it at the end of March, and the aggregate value of their holdings in saw only a maginal rise of 3.7% to $5.82 billion. Apart from Glenview, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson‘s Adage Capital Management was another hedge fund that increased its stake in the company during the second quarter, by 24% to 1.15 million shares.

Disclosure: None