Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management has made bullish moves into a pair of medical technology stocks. According to separate filings with the SEC, the fund has obtained 5.2% and 5.0% stakes in Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc (NASDAQ:ZLTQ) and Five Prime Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FPRX), respectively. Point72 now owns 1.96 million shares in the former, and 1.27 million shares in the latter.
Point72 Asset Management was founded by Steve Cohen in 1992 as S.A.C Capital Advisors, and consists of a group of hedge funds. Point72 Asset Management, which is their long position division, and EverPoint Asset Management, their short position division, manage the fund’s vast portfolio, which was valued at $13.29 billion as of Sepetember 30.
S.A.C changed its name to Point72 in March, 2014, and is now a family office, meaning it does not accept outside investors or clients. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to track the moves of one of the most successful hedge funds of the past two decades, whose biggest holdings as of September 30 were in Tyson Foods Inc (NYSE:TSN) with 7.42 million shares, and Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ) with 5.77 million shares. Point72 made huge additions to each of those holdings during the third quarter of 2014. They have also made a number of other moves in recent weeks, including increasing their positions in Jones Energy Inc (NYSE:JONE), Silicon Motion Technology Corp (ADR) (NASDAQ:SIMO), RCS Capital Corp (NYSE:RCAP), and Crocs, Inc (NASDAQ:CROX), while trimming their stake in Clearwater Paper Corp (NYSE:CLW).
In Point72’s latest moves, they’re investing in a pair of companies that appear to be on the rise. Five Prime Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FPRX), which is a new position for them, is up over 100% during the past three months after an underwhelming first nine months of 2014. Nor is Point72 the only fund taking notice of the therapeutics company, which is in the process of developing several promising antibody treatments; Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management recently added 1 million shares of Five Prime to their own holding, giving them a 6.09% stake.
Perhaps even more interestingly, Five Prime’s Director Franklin Berger has made a number of insider purchases over the past couple months, totalling 12,000 shares in total. The most recent purchases were on January 14 and 15, when he added 10,049 shares to his personal holding. Bullish hedge fund activity, and insider purchases (which are relatively rare) are a recipe for success in our books, which makes Five Prime Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FPRX) look like a prime target for investors.
Leerink Swann initiated coverage of Five Prime on January 22 with an “Outperform” rating, and strong $35.00 price target, well above their January 27 price of around $26.75. Also earlier this month, analysts at Jefferies reiterated their “Buy” rating on Five Prime. Other funds we track with stakes in Five Prime include Mark Lampert’s Biotechnology Value Fund (BVF) with 1.42 million shares, Samuel Isaly’s Orbimed Advisors with 1.07 million shares, and Daniel Gold’s QVT Financial with 645,705 shares.
