In a Form 4 filing, Baker Bros. Advisors, managed by Julian Baker and Felix Baker, reported acquiring 106,800 shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) last Thursday and Friday, at prices varying from $6.98 to $7.50 per share. After the recent purchase, the healthcare-focused hedge fund holds an ownership stake of roughly 14.68 million shares. Just recently the Insider Monkey team discussed the fund’s purchase of an additional 344,895 shares of the company. The biotechnology company develops small molecule drugs intended to block key enzymes involved in the pathogenesis of diseases. In October 2015, the company announced the completion of its OPuS-2 trial patient enrollment, which is a clinical trial of orally-administered avoralstat in patients with HAE, and anticipates being ready to reveal the results of this trial in early 2016. Jefferies believes that the upcoming results will disclose higher efficacy than the first clinical results. It should be mentioned that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) anticipates filing its NDA for the product candidate in 2018 given that no significant obstacles occur. Reportedly, the company is believed to be a potential acquisition target, which might attract new investor interest should any serious rumors start to circulate. The shares of the biotech company have lost 34% over the past year, which might have forced some hedge funds to sell out of their positions in the company. The number of hedgies from our system with stakes in the company dropped to 14 from 25 during the third quarter. Peter Kolchinsky’s RA Capital Management holds a 1.20 million-share position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) as of September 30.
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As revealed by a separate Form 4 filing, Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Holding L.P. sold 2.05 million shares of Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) last week at a weighted average price of $89.33. Following the recent sizable selloff, ValueAct currently holds an ownership stake of 11.96 million shares. The billionaire investor initiated a stake in the software company at the end of 2011, and has been gradually cashing out of it over the past several months. The shares of Adobe have advanced by 195% since the beginning of 2012, and are up by 18% over the past year alone. The activist investor and his team recognized the company’s potential to monetize its innovative offerings through subscription-based pricing, and Adobe has been able to deliver a much-awaited growth in revenue. The company’s subscription revenue as a portion of total revenue reached 67% for fiscal year 2015, up from just 50% reported for the prior fiscal year. Hence, Adobe Systems continues its successful transition to a subscription-based model. The company’s total revenue for fiscal year 2015 came in at $4.80 billion, compared to $4.15 billion reported for fiscal year 2014. Similarly, its net income increased by $361.2 million to $629.6 million, thanks to the exceptional top-line growth registered in 2015. Nonetheless, the company believes that there are plenty of opportunities in the digital media market at the moment, so Adobe might have more room to run. Although the stock trades at a rather rich forward price-to-earnings multiple of 22.88, which is higher than the average of 15.38 for the S&P 500 Index, the exceptional growth the company has been experiencing in recent years can justify the high valuation. A total of 42 hedge funds from our system owned the stock at the end of September, stockpiling nearly 10% of the company’s outstanding common stock. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC owns 3.21 million shares of Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) as of the end of the third quarter.
