Summers Value Partners recently released its Q2 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download here. The fund posted a return of 1.8% for the first half of 2020, outperforming its benchmark, the Russell 2000 Index which returned -13.6% in the same period. You should check out Summers Value Partners’ top 5 stock picks for investors to buy right now, which could be the biggest winners of the stock market crash.
In the said letter, Summers Value Partners’ highlighted a few stocks and Emisphere Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS:EMIS) is one of them. Emisphere Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS:EMIS) is a pharmaceutical company. Year-to-date, Emisphere Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS:EMIS) stock lost 1.6% and on August 10th it had a closing price of $7.07. Here is what Summers Value Partners’ said:
“We began purchasing shares of Emisphere in February 2019, and the Fund currently carries a loss in the position. We highlighted Emisphere as a key holding in our last quarterly update, and we believe our thesis has only strengthened since then. While the launch of Rybelsus (oral semaglutide), which can be used to control blood sugar in Type 2 diabetes patients, was temporarily curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has more recently resumed an impressive uptrend. In the most recent week of data, total prescriptions approached the 10,000 mark, which equates to over $250 million in annualized sales. As a reminder, Emisphere receives a 2.5% royalty on Rybelsus sales globally. We believe the growth of Rybelsus is in its infancy and that the drug will ultimately achieve global sales of $10 billion or more.
Emisphere’s commercial partner, Novo Nordisk, made two positive clinical trial announcements during the second quarter on Ozempic (injectable semaglutide). Novo first announced positive phase 2 data with Ozempic in NASH or fatty liver disease. In the 72-week trial, patients on the high dose showed 59% NASH resolution versus 17% in the control arm. The drug will be studied further in a large-scale phase 3 trial, but it looks to be a serious competitor for this metabolic disorder. Novo also announced positive results from a series of phase 3 trials of Ozempic in obesity (STEP 1-4). The STEP 4 trial was a real-world clinical trial with all patients starting on Ozempic and only a portion remaining on the drug for the entirety of the trial. The patients who stayed on the drug for all 68 weeks achieved weight loss of 18.2%. Those patients who dropped off the drug at week 48 regained 6.9% of their body weight. Based on the strength of the STEP trials, we believe that semaglutide is one of the best weight loss drugs in the world. Novo expects to file for an obesity indication later in 2020 and should receive approval next year. As an oral version of semaglutide, we expect Rybelsus to generate a lot of patient use before moving to the injectable version.
Rybelsus received Japanese regulatory approval in May, and Novo Nordisk will be launching the drug in that market with a partner during the third quarter. Japan has roughly 10 million diabetic patients and they overwhelmingly prefer oral therapies, which would appear to favor Rybelsus as the only oral option in the GLP-1 class. Sales of diabetes drugs in Japan grew 5% in 2019 to over $5 billion while sales of GLP1 drugs increased by 20%. The Japanese approval follows on the heels of regulatory approvals in the U.S., Europe and Canada.”
wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock.com
Our calculations showed that Emisphere Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS:EMIS) isn’t ranked among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 185% since the end of 2014 and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 109 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds’ poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Below you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.
Video: Top 5 Stocks Among Hedge Funds
At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. With Federal Reserve creating trillions of dollars out of thin air, we believe gold prices will keep increasing. So, we are checking out gold stocks like this small gold mining company. We go through lists like the 10 most profitable companies in America to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. You can subscribe to our free enewsletter below to receive our stories in your inbox:
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
