The hedge fund industry had a disappointing 2015 in terms of returns, so numerous money managers may face increasing redemption requests should their performance continue to disappoint. Nonetheless, there was a handful of money managers who managed to greatly outperform peers and the broader market last year. Steven Cohen and Dmitry Balyasny were among the hedge fund managers who beat benchmarks by a wide margin in 2015. Reportedly, Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management L.P. gained a whopping 15.5% last year after operating expenses, while Balyasny Asset Management’s Atlas Enhanced Fund was up by 5.9% in 2015. Although past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results, investors could identify high-potential stocks by closely monitoring successful money managers’ moves. For that reason, the following article will discuss four SEC filings recently submitted by the two successful managers.
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According to a Schedule 13G filing, Point72 Asset Management L.P. currently owns 1.66 million shares of Puma Biotechnology Inc. (NYSE:PBYI), which constitute 5.1% of the company’s outstanding shares. This denotes an increase of 1.11 million shares from the stake disclosed through the fund’s 13F filing for the third quarter. The shares of the California-based biopharmaceutical company are down by 80% over the past 12-month period, and have lost 49% year-to-date. The company primarily focuses on acquiring, developing, and commercializing innovative products to enhance cancer care. Puma Biotechnology Inc. (NYSE:PBYI)’s neratinib, or PB272, is being developed for the treatment of patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2, positive breast cancer, and patients with non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer and other tumors with a HER2 mutation. Although Puma has not generated any product sales just yet, the company anticipates to receive approval of a product candidate through the end of 2016 assuming no unforeseen safety issues arise. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors upped its stake in Puma Biotechnology Inc. (NYSE:PBYI) by 168,581 shares during the fourth quarter of 2015 to 284,427 shares.
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Let’s move on to the next two pages of this article, where we discuss a few other SEC filings submitted by billionaires Coven and Balyasny.
In a newly-amended 13G filing, Steven Cohen’s family office reported owning 9.38 million Class A shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) as of February 11. This is down from the stake of 10.32 million shares held on December 31, as disclosed by a separate 13G filing. The freshly-cut stake accounts for 7.4% of the company’s outstanding common stock. The entrepreneurial pharmaceutical company has one marketed product at the moment, called linaclotide, which was approved by the FDA in August 2012 for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC). This product is available in the U.S. and Mexico under the name LINZESS and available in several European countries and Canada under the name CONSTELLA. According to fresh estimates, LINZESS U.S. net sales totaled roughly $450 million in 2015, which marked an increase of more than 50% year-over-year. Just recently, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) released a set of operational and financial goals for the upcoming years, which include the commercialization of new products, and the growth of cash flows. More specifically, the company aims at reaching LINZESS annual net sales of at least $1 billion through the end of 2020 and bringing at least two internal product candidates to the market. In the meantime, Ironwood shares are down 45% over the past one-year period. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies LLC was bullish on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) during the final quarter of 2015, as it boosted its stake in the pharmaceutical company by 211,300 shares to 242,553 shares.
As revealed in another 13G filing, Balyasny Asset Management LLC currently owns 4.86 million shares of Dean Foods Co (NYSE:DF), which constitute 5.32% of the company’s outstanding stock. The firm owned a mere 20,034 shares of the food and beverage company at the end of September. The largest processor and direct-to-store distributor of fluid milk and other dairy products has seen its shares advance at least 20% since the beginning of the year, partly owing to lower milk input costs. Analysts anticipate that milk prices will decline approximately 6% in 2016, which will most likely strengthen Dean Foods’ fundamentals. The continued decline in milk prices is anticipated to boost fresh milk volumes and enhance the company’s profit margins. Numerous financial hubs recently have updated their ratings on Dean Foods Co (NYSE:DF) ahead of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call that takes place on February 22. For instance, BB&T upgraded its rating on the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ and set a price target of $22, citing favorable dairy volume and margin trends. At the same time, Bernstein upgraded the stock to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ and lifted the price target to $25 from $21. The company’s net sales for the first nine months of 2015 totaled $6.10 billion, down from $7.11 billion reported for the same period of 2014. The decrease was mainly attributable to decreased pricing, which reflected the substantial decline in dairy commodity costs. Renaissance Technologies boosted its position in Dean Foods Co (NYSE:DF) by nearly 879,000 shares during the October-December period to 2.32 million shares.
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Let’s conclude our discussion by examining the content of another 13G filed by billionaire Dmitry Balyasny. The filing disclosed that Balyasny Asset Management recently initiated a new position of 1.20 million shares in CARBO Ceramics Inc. (NYSE:CRR), which represents 5.16% of the company’s total shares. The stock of the oilfield services technology company has lost 63% over the past 12 months, on the back of the struggling oil and gas industry. The company’s primary source of revenues comes from the sale of production enhancement products and services to the oil and natural gas industry, so it is no wonder why CARBO has suffered so much pain in the past several quarters. CARBO Ceramics Inc. (NYSE:CRR)’s revenues for 2015 decreased by 57% on the year to $279.57 million. The decline was mainly due to a 48% reduction in the average North American rig count, which impacted both proppant sales volumes and average selling prices. But what can investors expect from this struggling company going forward? It is anticipated that the North American rig count will most likely drop by double digits in the current quarter, so the company’s proppant sales will experience significant pressure in the first half of this year and beyond should crude oil prices remain at current levels. Royce & Associates, founded by Chuck Royce, cut its stake in CARBO Ceramics Inc. (NYSE:CRR) by 338,546 shares during the fourth quarter, ending the year with 175,000 shares.
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