North Tide Capital financial investment advisory firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, founded and managed by Conan Laughlin. Before this, Mr. Laughlin served as a portfolio manager at Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management, from 2005-2011.
A few days ago, the fund filed a Form 13F at the SEC, disclosing its long equity positions as of March 31 2014. It declared holding 31 different stock positions, most (97%) of them in the healthcare sector. 3 of these holdings were newcomers at the portfolio, and another 12 saw the fund’s stake increase over the quarter. Let’s take a closer look at the top holdings in this portfolio, valued at more than $1.18 billion, and some of the moves that took place over Q1.
The fund’s top holding is Select Medical Holdings Corporation (NYSE:SEM), a $1.9 billion market cap company that provides long term acute care hospital services and inpatient acute rehabilitative hospital care and provides physical, occupational and speech rehabilitation services. Over the quarter the fund doubled its exposure to the company, and now owns 13.95 million shares, worth about $173 million. This makes North Tide the largest hedge fund investor at the company – amongst those we track. Also, quite bullish about this company is Phill Gross And Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, which upped its position by 54% and now owns 2 million shares.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA), which occupied the first spot in the first quarter is now second, although Mr. Laughlin’s fund increased its bets by 9%. The fund last declared owning 3 million shares of the company, worth over $158 million. Teva develops, produces and markets generic drugs in all treatment categories. Its market cap surpasses $43 billion. The company’s largest hedge fund shareholder, Sean Cullinan’s Point State Capital, boosted its position by 35%, to 12.7 million shares.
Allergan Inc (NYSE:AGN) is a $49.7 billion market cap a multi-specialty healthcare company that develops and commercializes pharmaceuticals, biologics and medical devices. The fund increased its stake by 56% over Q1, to 700,000 shares. The value of this position surpassed $86 million, which accounts for 7.3% of the fund’s equity portfolio. Furthermore, Samuel Isaly’s Orbimed Advisors almost tripled its exposure to the company over the quarter, and now owns 2.27 million shares, worth about $281 million.
Unlike the previous cases, North Tide’s fourth and fifth largest holdings saw its position decrease over the first quarter. WellPoint Inc (NYSE:WLP) is a health benefits company that offers a spectrum of network-based managed care plans to the large and small employer, individual, Medicaid and senior markets. The fund now owns 850,000 shares of the company, worth about $84 million. This implies a 6% decrease in its position in relation to the previous quarter. Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management is one of the largest shareholders of the company, owning 5.3 million shares (up 1% over Q1).
Actavis plc (NYSE:ACT) also witnessed a reduction in the fund’s stake by 11%, to 400,00 shares. Noth Tide’s position in the specialty pharmaceutical company is worth about $82 million.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no position in any stocks mentioned
