Sunday, July 17, 2016

$ALJ Billionaire Steve Cohen's new trade

Well-known hedge fund manager Steve Cohen disclosed he bought 2.69 mln new shares of Alon USA Energy ($ALJ), an independent refiner in #13G filing on 7/15. He increased his stake to 3.81 mln sh, 5.4% ownership, a 240% increase.
Why did he make this trade now?
  1. $ALJ has declined 56% YTD
  2. $ALJ only traded 6.7% above 52 wk low.
  3. Stock chart seems to form a double bottom indicating a possible bottom may have been reached.
Cohen's trade is most likely a bargain hunting trade.
To find out more who are the hedge fund holders of $ALJ, go to https://hedgemind.com/stocks/ALJ

Friday, July 8, 2016

$TTOO & $CASC Microcap biotech stocks attracted Julian Robertson and Seth Klarman
$TTOO Julian Robertson, the legendary hedge fund manager Julian Robertson disclosed in a SEC 13G filing that he just purchased 704,383 sh of $TTOO, is an in vitro diagnostics company engaged in developing a technology platform offering an alternative to diagnostic methodologies. Robertson's new trade more than doubled his stake to 1.25mln sh 5.17% ownership.
$TTOO has suffered a 51% YTD decline as of today, 65% in a year and currently is traded at 52 week low. T2 Biosystems recently pushed out the expected timeline for the completion of T2Bacteria Panel pivotal trial. Also the stock was downgraded to sell from Buy at BTIG Research; tgt to $4 from $12 today.
$CASC Seth Klarman, the value legend, disclosed he acquired a 25mln sh stake at $0.8/sh from biotech's recent 35mln sh public offering. The company recently received Fast Track designation from FDA for the treatment of advanced HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. The Company is actively recruiting patients for a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 study, known as HER2CLIMB, evaluating ONT-380 in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine for patients with advanced HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. Stock lost 56% YTD, -73% in a year.
Coincidently both stocks are traded at about $125 million market cap and have declined in similar range in the past year. Whether these top hedge funds' actions can really help their stock prices is still a huge question. But it is worth to view this as positive info that these smart money is willing to make a bet on both beaten down microcap biotechs.