On Jan. 29th, Sanofi-Aventis, a European pharmaceutical group and Large Shareholder at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN), filed a Form 4 report at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, declaring several purchases of the company’s stock. On. Jan. 27th the insider acquired – through several different transactions – more than 74,000 shares. On the following day, the pharmaceutical group bought stock yet again; this time, more than 83,000 shares. He paid prices ranging from $270.18 to $279.73 per share, inclusive. After the reported transactions –on which Sanofi spent roughly $42.4 million, the shareholder owns 15.97 million shares of the company worth more than $4.5 billion.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) is, as its name clearly indicates, a $28 billion market cap integrated biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and manufactures medicines for the treatment of serious medical conditions. The company holds a promising product pipeline and a leading monoclonal antibody research and development platform. Trading at 41.8 times its earnings, a 30% discount versus the industry average valuation, while offering industry leading margins and returns –more than triple the industry mean values, this stock looks like a catch. In fact, most analysts consider this company´s stock to be a buy or strong buy case, and expect it to deliver above average annual EPS growth rates over the next five years (31.5% in average).
Sanofi, a healthcare company more than four times bigger than Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) in terms of market cap, continues to invest in this pharmaceutical company and many analysts consider that an acquisition could occur somewhere down the road. If this were to happen, other stockholders could result highly benefited.
Besides analysts and Sanofi, there are several hedge funds that also seem to like Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN). In its last 13F form, Samuel Isaly´s Orbimed Advisors –the largest “hedgie” bull- declared an increase of 46% in its position in the stock. The fund now holds 513,100 shares, valued at approximately $ 1.46 billion. This position comprised 2.86% of Orbimed´s Q3 equity portfolio.
Second in terms of bullish sentiment is Donald Chiboucis‘ Columbus Circle Investors, which also augmented its bets on Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) over the last reported quarter. The fund upped its stakes by 6%, and owned more than 451,500 shares at the end of Q3, which accounted for 1% of its total equity holdings.
Finally, third in line is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group. The fund boosted its involvement in the company by 1488% in its last reported quarter. Griffin’s fund now owns 383,572 shares. Other prominent funds that also incremented their bets on Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) are Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies and Adage Capital Management.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no position in any stocks mentioned
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