Billionaire Leone Boosts Stake in This REIT, Ubben Sells More Shares of Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI), Plus Two Other Hot Moves

As revealed in a Form 4 filing, Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Capital unloaded 896,000 shares of Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE:MSI) in the three-day period of Tuesday through Thursday, at a weighted average price of $72.39 per share, cutting its overall holding in the company to 8.76 million shares. According to a separate Form 4 filing discussed by Insider Monkey earlier this week, ValueAct sold 1.31 million shares of Motorola Solutions from last Thursday through Monday of this week. The freshly-trimmed stake accounts for 5.02% of the company’s outstanding common stock. The friendly activist investor disclosed an ownership stake of 5.9% in Motorola Solutions in June 2011, after activist Carl Icahn forced cell phone maker Motorola to spin-off its government-and-enterprise arm, which became Motorola Solutions. Investors at the time were saying that Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE:MSI) had too much cash on hand and too little debt on its balance sheet (as backwards as that thinking may appear to be). Mr. Ubben’s activist hedge fund accumulated a 10% stake in the telecommunications giant between 2011 and 2012, and his friendly approach to activism has delivered great results since then. The provider of mission-critical communication infrastructure, devices, accessories, software and services has seen its shares advance by 66% over the past five years, which more or less reflects ValueAct’s return on its initial investment in Motorola Solutions. The smart money sentiment towards the company declined noticeably in the fourth quarter of 2015, with the number of funds invested in Motorola dropping to 22 from 27 quarter-over-quarter. William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management trimmed its stake in Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE:MSI) by 12% in the December quarter, entering 2016 with 13.05 million shares.

According to a separate Form 4 filing, Baker Bros. Advisors LP, managed by Julian Baker and Felix Baker, has acquired 800,000 shares of Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) over the course of this week, as well as exercised 60,000 non-qualified stock options at an exercise price of only $3.86. After the recent transactions, the healthcare-focused investment firm owns 23.65 million shares of Incyte, which represent 12.6% of the company’s outstanding common stock. It should be noted that this stake does not include the shares of common stock held directly by Julian C. Baker and Felix J. Baker. Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the development of proprietary therapeutics for the treatment of serious unmet medical needs, with a particular focus on oncology. The company’s first FDA approved product, JAKAFI (ruxolitinib), was approved in November 2011 for treating patients suffering with intermediate or high-risk myelofibrosis and approved in December 2014 for treating patients suffering with polycythemia vera, both of which are rare blood cancers. Incyte Corporate generated total revenue of $753.75 million in 2015, which was an increase from $511.50 million in 2014 and $354.95 million in 2013. A total of 39 hedge funds that we track were invested in Incyte at the end of December, holding almost 15% of the company’s outstanding common stock. Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors had 2.83 million shares of Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) in its portfolio at the end of 2015.

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