Julian H. Robertson Jr. is an American former hedge fund manager. He was born in Salisbury, N.C., in 1932. Robertson graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in business administration in 1955. After a stint in the Navy, he joined Kidder, Peabody & Co. in New York in 1957 and, over a 20-year career, became one of the firm's top producing stockbrokers.
Robertson founded the investment firm Tiger Management Corp., one of the earliest hedge funds, in 1980 with $8 million start-up capital that became over $22 billion in the late 1990s. Quick success was also followed by a fast downward spiral of investor withdrawals that ended with the fund closing in 2000. Now retired, Robertson invests directly in other hedge funds, most run by former employees of Robertson's defunct hedge fund company. He is active in philanthropy and supporting the resolution of environmental issues.
Subsequently, he became head of Kidder Peabody's money management subsidiary, Webster Management Corporation. In 1993, his compensation and share of Tiger's gain exceeded $300 million. His 2003 estimated net worth was over $400 million, and in March 2011 it was estimated by Forbes at $2.3 billion, a slight increase from the $2.2 billion estimated the previous year. Robertson said in 2008 that he shorted subprime securities and made money through credit default swaps. The following year, according to Forbes, Robertson's return on his $200-million personal trading account was 150 percent.
Year after year of brilliant returns turned a reported $8 million investment in 1980 into $7.2 billion in 1996. During the later part of this period, Robertson was the reigning titan of the world's hedge funds. At his peak, no one could best him for sheer stock-picking acumen. Investors, at a required minimum initial investment of $5 million, flocked into his six hedge funds.
In the late 1990s, Robertson agonized over the tech-stock craze and while avoiding what he considered to be "irrational" investing, the TMG funds missed out on any participation on the big gains of the sector. The gradual demise of Tiger from 1998 to 2000, when all its funds were closed, was reflected in the plunge in assets under management from a peak of $22 billion in assets in 1998 to a closing value of $6 billion. Poor stock picking and large, misplaced bets on risky market trades are usually cited as the cause of Robertson's downfall. However, it is felt by many objective observers that high-level executive defections from TMG's management, as well as Robertson's autocratic managerial style and notorious temper, eventually took their toll on the firm's performance. Tiger's largest equity holding at that time was U.S. Airways, whose troubles dragged down the value of his holdings.
After closing his fund in 2000, Robertson kept his hand in the hedge fund business by supporting and financing upcoming hedge fund managers, in return for a stake in their fund management companies. Apart from those, many of the analysts and managers Robertson employed and mentored at Tiger Management went out on their own and are now running some of the best-known hedge fund firms, called "Tiger Cubs."
Robertson has been quoted as saying, "Our mandate is to find the 200 best companies in the world and invest in them, and find the 200 worst companies in the world and go short on them. If the 200 best don't do better than the 200 worst, you should probably be in another business."
He is very private on his investments. In TMG, Robertson would get input from his analysts and make all the investment decisions. It is said though that Robertson was a macro trader, and often rode worldwide trends. His investment style, about which there is very little written, consisted of a "smart idea, grounded on exhaustive research, followed by a big bet." Not exactly a practical framework that would work for the general investing public.
Stocks that Julian Robertson keeps buying
No. 1: Wuxi Pharmatech Inc. Ads (WX, Financial), Weightings: 4.37% - 1,095,772 Shares
WuXi PharmaTech is a Shanghai-based manufacturer of pharmaceutical and biotechnology R&D outsourcing company who has just been announced today that it has been selected as one of the Top Ten Outsourcing Enterprises in China for 2011 by China's Ministry of Commerce. Market cap of $1.32B, relative volume at 1.72, and its shares were traded at around $16.48 with a P/E ratio of 18.2 and P/S ratio of 3.7.
This stock is currently trading 6.59% above its 20-day MA, 12.0% above its 50-day MA, and 12.96% above its 200-day MA. On a net basis, institutional investors purchased 6.3 million shares during the current quarter; this is equivalent to 12.24% of the outstanding shares. The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 5.67% over the last week.
One of China’s most visible CRO/CMOs reported first quarter revenues that were slightly better than expected, up16% to $93.6 million. Net income climbed 17% to $18.2 million, or 24 cents per share. Although all of the company's operations seem to be doing well, manufacturing services are providing the highest rate of growth at present. Results from that segment are expected to grow at least 50% in 2011. WuXi has $162 million in cash. The company’s lab service revenues increased 12%, but the star performer was contract manufacturing, which climbed 35% to $19.1 million.
Julian Robertson owns 1,095,772 shares of WX, valued as $17 million as of March 31, 2011, which accounts for 4.37% of his equity portfolio. Julian Robertson added his positions in the Dec. 31, 2010 quarter by 30.12%, again in the March 31, 2011 quarter by 5.71%. He has bought and sold out over 1.3 million shares in an instant in early 2010, and then he bought this stock again and has increased his position ever since late 2010.
The current investment is of longer term than last time as well as a substantial increase in shares over time, but has yet to surpass even 1.1 million shares. The stock price seems constant since Robertson first bought this stock, so his confidence for huge returns might be lower now.
No. 2: DigitalGlobe Inc (DGI, Financial), Weightings: 4.1% - 565,862 Shares
DigitalGlobe Inc. is a global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery products and services. It is building a constellation of high-resolution earth imaging satellites and geo-information products. The company’s DigitalGlobe System facilitates the collection and archival of geospatial information data and ensures flexible distribution. It has a market cap of $1.15 billion; its shares were traded at around $24.05 with a P/E ratio of 311 and P/S ratio of 3.5. This stock is trading 3.47% above its 52-week low. Its Put/Call ratio is 0.31, given the call open interest at 1,366 contracts vs. put open interest at 423 contracts.
The stock has performed poorly over the last month, losing 15.1%. First quarter 2011 ddjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $55.4 million, an increase of 49% compared with first quarter 2010 ddjusted EBITDA of $37.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA includes current-quarter deferrals related to EnhancedView and for both periods, excludes approximately $6.4 million of amortized revenue related to NextView. Cash Flow from Operations was $60.5 million in the first quarter, up 37% compared with first quarter 2010.
In the quarter, the company signed its fifth direct access program (DAP) customer and expects to bring that customer into service in early 2012. The company has signed a five-year agreement with Turksat, the leading communications provider in Turkey. Turksat will re-sell imagery to both government and commercial customers in that country. Morgan Keegan upgraded this stock from “Market perform” to “Outperform.” The price target for the stock is $32. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $23.31 to $33.16 and most recently traded at $23.90. The company earned $0.04 per share last year.
For the full year 2011, the company expects: revenue in a range of $330 million to $355 million — excluding any deferrals related to EnhancedView and including amortized revenue related to NextView; diluted earnings per share of $0.10 to $0.20, assuming an average diluted share count of approximately 47 million; adjusted EBITDA of $223 million to $243 million; capital expenditures for 2011 of at least $275 million, with all but approximately $35 million related to the company's construction of WorldView-3 and other EnhancedView-related infrastructure investments.
Julian Robertson owns 565,862 shares of DGI, valued as $16 million as of March 31, 2011, which accounts for 4.1% of his equity portfolio. Julian Robertson added to his position in the Dec. 31, 2010 quarter by 216.04% and again in the March 31, 2011 quarter by 43.24%.
He has been very versatile with this stock by buying and selling hundreds of thousands of shares since late 2009. The stock price has been increasing steadily since then. Right now Robertson is on an upswing along with the stock price.
No. 3: Cardiome Pharma Corp. (CRME, Financial), Weightings: 2.8% - 2,532,340 Shares
Cardiome Pharma Corp. is a product-focused cardiovascular drug development company with two clinical drug programs focused on atrial arrhythmia (intravenous and oral dosing), and a pre-clinical program directed at improving cardiovascular function. It has a market cap of $287.5 million; its shares were traded at around $4.11 with a P/E ratio of 22.4 and P/S ratio of 4.3.
TheStreet’s rating of this stock has been upgraded from sell to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its good cash flow from operations, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and notable return on equity. Despite currently having a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, it is higher than that of the industry average, implying that management of debt levels may need to be evaluated further. Even though the debt-to-equity ratio shows mixed results, the company's quick ratio of 13.93 is very high and demonstrates very strong liquidity.
Cardiome Pharma Corp.’s net income has significantly decreased by 146.2% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $15.47 million to -$7.15 million. Net operating cash flow has increased 18.43% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -4.63%.
Despite the heavy decline in its share price, this stock is still more expensive (when compared to its current earnings) than most other companies in its industry. This company has not demonstrated a clear trend in earnings over the past two years, making it difficult to accurately predict earnings for the coming year. The company has lost money in years past, and the recent surge in earnings should be examined closely as to whether the gains were of a one-time nature or are a sustainable trend of strong growth. The company has many drugs for treating heart illnesses which appear to have solid prospects, making CRME a stock to watch.
Julian Robertson owns 2,532,340 shares of CRME, valued as $11 million as of March 31, 2011, which accounts for 2.8% of his equity portfolio. Julian Robertson added his positions in the Dec. 31, 2010 quarter by 9.55%, again in the March 31, 2011 quarter by 6.15%. He has been steadily increasing his position since mid-2010, which was the stock’s peck since late 2008, but the stock price has not performed as well as he would hope. The stock price is starting to increase again, so it is interesting if Robertson will invest more or will just hold his position.
Stocks that Julian Robertson keeps selling
No. 1: Apple Inc. (AAPL, Financial), Weightings: 7.3% - 81,130 Shares
Apple Computer Inc. designs, manufactures and markets personal computers and related personal computing and communicating solutions for sale primarily to education, creative, consumer and business customers. It has a market cap of $306.12 billion; its shares were traded at around $325.3 with a P/E ratio of 15.8 and P/S ratio of 4.6. Apple Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 59.8% over the past five years. Over the past 90 days shares of Apple Inc. have swan-dived lower and lower, recently touching $310.50, considering that AAPL was trading near $360 in February.
Apple insider recently reported that Mac sales to enterprise customers grew 66% year over year compared to just a 4.5% growth for the overall enterprise PC market. That rate of growth is hugely impressive and if it continues, we can expect Apple to eventually reach 20% market share in the overall PC market. If Apple is able to substantially grow its mobile market share (by lowering prices) the iOS platform and all the apps that run on it is a new use of the Internet.
There is no company better positioned to profit from this revolution than Apple. With the dominance in the digital music player market (iPod has roughly 75% of that market), Apple is well protected from those competitors. iAds are a revolutionary way for businesses to reach customers. The ads are interactive, entertaining, and they engage potential customers in a way in which the old interruption marketing could not. As Apple TV matures and gains an audience, iAds could become a key aspect of our TV watching habits as well.
The common conception of AAPL’s performance is just a matter of time of when the new Apple product comes out, and for 2011 it is the iPhone 5 coming in September. On the other hand, skeptics believe that AAPL cannot go up forever with no competition.
Julian Robertson owns 81,130 shares of AAPL, valued as $28 million as of March 31, 2011, which accounts for 7.3% of his equity portfolio. Julian Robertson reduced his positions in the Dec. 31, 2010 quarter by 4.51%, again in the March 31, 2011 quarter by 33.41%.
Robertson has gone through two cycles with this stock since late 2008, buying about 150,000 shares and slowly selling a few thousand shares over a period of about a year, and he repeated that with another huge buy in mid-2010. Currently Robertson is on his selling phase. The stock price was low at about $95 when he first bought the stock in 2008 and has only increased since.
No. 2: Theravance Inc. (THRX, Financial), Weightings: 1.32% - 211,686 Shares
Theravance Inc. is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule medicines for unmet medical needs across a number of therapeutic areas including respiratory disease, bacterial infections, overactive bladder and gastrointestinal disorders. Theravance Inc. has a market cap of $1.97 billion; its shares were traded at around $22.12 with and P/S ratio of 81.5. The stock has performed poorly over the last month, losing 10.57%. Net insider purchases over the past 6 months were at 5.19 million, representing 9.92% of the company's 52.32 million-share float. The stock is a short squeeze candidate, with a short float at 8.61% (equivalent to 14.49 days of average volume).
THRX is a generally low-revenue biotech company that works with Glaxo-Smith Kline (GSK, Financial) to produce the next-generation COPD-asthma products. GSK's Advair produces almost $8 billion in revenues for Glaxo, and THRX's product, Relovair would produce 15% on the first $3 billion in sales and 5% thereafter with virtually no drug application costs to Theravance upon approval of its LABA and ICS combination drugs.
THRX also has a partnership with Astellas for commercialization of MRSA (difficult-to-treat hospital staph infection) drug Vibativ in stage 3 and also pending approval in the EU. 2011 and 2012 milestone payments from both GSK and Astellas appear attainable. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) invested $6.7 million in THRX, at $25.60 per share. GSK now owns around 19% of Theravance’s outstanding capital stock. THRX is a biopharmaceutical company with a market cap of $2.29 billion, and recently received approval for its Vibativ drug. The firm has not had positive earnings yet, but should turn that around in the next few years because of the Vibativ approval. The company has several other drugs in late stages of testing and approval, giving it further growth potential.
Theravance also has very little debt. This stock is very dependent on others and cannot be viewed on its own. It is tough to value a company yet to sell a product, and concerns still exist over Vibativ, both in terms of health risks and market viability. While other developmental drugs may be promising, they are far from safe bets, and the company may never generate significant profits to justify the current stock price. The best chance for Theravance is probably to appreciate is a full takeover by GSK or another industry competitor.
Julian Robertson owns 211,686 shares of THRX, valued as $5 million as of March 31, 2011, which accounts for 1.32% of his equity portfolio. Julian Robertson reduced his positions in the Dec. 31, 2010 quarter by 6.95%, again in the March 31, 2011 quarter by 20.94%. He bought almost 300,000 shares of this stock in late 2010, and has been selling ever since. The stock price did increase but leveled off for now.
Also check out the Undervalued Stocks, Top Growth Companies, and High Yield stocks of Julian Robertson.
Robertson founded the investment firm Tiger Management Corp., one of the earliest hedge funds, in 1980 with $8 million start-up capital that became over $22 billion in the late 1990s. Quick success was also followed by a fast downward spiral of investor withdrawals that ended with the fund closing in 2000. Now retired, Robertson invests directly in other hedge funds, most run by former employees of Robertson's defunct hedge fund company. He is active in philanthropy and supporting the resolution of environmental issues.
Subsequently, he became head of Kidder Peabody's money management subsidiary, Webster Management Corporation. In 1993, his compensation and share of Tiger's gain exceeded $300 million. His 2003 estimated net worth was over $400 million, and in March 2011 it was estimated by Forbes at $2.3 billion, a slight increase from the $2.2 billion estimated the previous year. Robertson said in 2008 that he shorted subprime securities and made money through credit default swaps. The following year, according to Forbes, Robertson's return on his $200-million personal trading account was 150 percent.
Year after year of brilliant returns turned a reported $8 million investment in 1980 into $7.2 billion in 1996. During the later part of this period, Robertson was the reigning titan of the world's hedge funds. At his peak, no one could best him for sheer stock-picking acumen. Investors, at a required minimum initial investment of $5 million, flocked into his six hedge funds.
In the late 1990s, Robertson agonized over the tech-stock craze and while avoiding what he considered to be "irrational" investing, the TMG funds missed out on any participation on the big gains of the sector. The gradual demise of Tiger from 1998 to 2000, when all its funds were closed, was reflected in the plunge in assets under management from a peak of $22 billion in assets in 1998 to a closing value of $6 billion. Poor stock picking and large, misplaced bets on risky market trades are usually cited as the cause of Robertson's downfall. However, it is felt by many objective observers that high-level executive defections from TMG's management, as well as Robertson's autocratic managerial style and notorious temper, eventually took their toll on the firm's performance. Tiger's largest equity holding at that time was U.S. Airways, whose troubles dragged down the value of his holdings.
After closing his fund in 2000, Robertson kept his hand in the hedge fund business by supporting and financing upcoming hedge fund managers, in return for a stake in their fund management companies. Apart from those, many of the analysts and managers Robertson employed and mentored at Tiger Management went out on their own and are now running some of the best-known hedge fund firms, called "Tiger Cubs."
Robertson has been quoted as saying, "Our mandate is to find the 200 best companies in the world and invest in them, and find the 200 worst companies in the world and go short on them. If the 200 best don't do better than the 200 worst, you should probably be in another business."
He is very private on his investments. In TMG, Robertson would get input from his analysts and make all the investment decisions. It is said though that Robertson was a macro trader, and often rode worldwide trends. His investment style, about which there is very little written, consisted of a "smart idea, grounded on exhaustive research, followed by a big bet." Not exactly a practical framework that would work for the general investing public.
Stocks that Julian Robertson keeps buying
No. 1: Wuxi Pharmatech Inc. Ads (WX, Financial), Weightings: 4.37% - 1,095,772 Shares
WuXi PharmaTech is a Shanghai-based manufacturer of pharmaceutical and biotechnology R&D outsourcing company who has just been announced today that it has been selected as one of the Top Ten Outsourcing Enterprises in China for 2011 by China's Ministry of Commerce. Market cap of $1.32B, relative volume at 1.72, and its shares were traded at around $16.48 with a P/E ratio of 18.2 and P/S ratio of 3.7.
This stock is currently trading 6.59% above its 20-day MA, 12.0% above its 50-day MA, and 12.96% above its 200-day MA. On a net basis, institutional investors purchased 6.3 million shares during the current quarter; this is equivalent to 12.24% of the outstanding shares. The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 5.67% over the last week.
One of China’s most visible CRO/CMOs reported first quarter revenues that were slightly better than expected, up16% to $93.6 million. Net income climbed 17% to $18.2 million, or 24 cents per share. Although all of the company's operations seem to be doing well, manufacturing services are providing the highest rate of growth at present. Results from that segment are expected to grow at least 50% in 2011. WuXi has $162 million in cash. The company’s lab service revenues increased 12%, but the star performer was contract manufacturing, which climbed 35% to $19.1 million.
Julian Robertson owns 1,095,772 shares of WX, valued as $17 million as of March 31, 2011, which accounts for 4.37% of his equity portfolio. Julian Robertson added his positions in the Dec. 31, 2010 quarter by 30.12%, again in the March 31, 2011 quarter by 5.71%. He has bought and sold out over 1.3 million shares in an instant in early 2010, and then he bought this stock again and has increased his position ever since late 2010.
The current investment is of longer term than last time as well as a substantial increase in shares over time, but has yet to surpass even 1.1 million shares. The stock price seems constant since Robertson first bought this stock, so his confidence for huge returns might be lower now.
No. 2: DigitalGlobe Inc (DGI, Financial), Weightings: 4.1% - 565,862 Shares
DigitalGlobe Inc. is a global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery products and services. It is building a constellation of high-resolution earth imaging satellites and geo-information products. The company’s DigitalGlobe System facilitates the collection and archival of geospatial information data and ensures flexible distribution. It has a market cap of $1.15 billion; its shares were traded at around $24.05 with a P/E ratio of 311 and P/S ratio of 3.5. This stock is trading 3.47% above its 52-week low. Its Put/Call ratio is 0.31, given the call open interest at 1,366 contracts vs. put open interest at 423 contracts.
The stock has performed poorly over the last month, losing 15.1%. First quarter 2011 ddjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $55.4 million, an increase of 49% compared with first quarter 2010 ddjusted EBITDA of $37.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA includes current-quarter deferrals related to EnhancedView and for both periods, excludes approximately $6.4 million of amortized revenue related to NextView. Cash Flow from Operations was $60.5 million in the first quarter, up 37% compared with first quarter 2010.
In the quarter, the company signed its fifth direct access program (DAP) customer and expects to bring that customer into service in early 2012. The company has signed a five-year agreement with Turksat, the leading communications provider in Turkey. Turksat will re-sell imagery to both government and commercial customers in that country. Morgan Keegan upgraded this stock from “Market perform” to “Outperform.” The price target for the stock is $32. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $23.31 to $33.16 and most recently traded at $23.90. The company earned $0.04 per share last year.
For the full year 2011, the company expects: revenue in a range of $330 million to $355 million — excluding any deferrals related to EnhancedView and including amortized revenue related to NextView; diluted earnings per share of $0.10 to $0.20, assuming an average diluted share count of approximately 47 million; adjusted EBITDA of $223 million to $243 million; capital expenditures for 2011 of at least $275 million, with all but approximately $35 million related to the company's construction of WorldView-3 and other EnhancedView-related infrastructure investments.
Julian Robertson owns 565,862 shares of DGI, valued as $16 million as of March 31, 2011, which accounts for 4.1% of his equity portfolio. Julian Robertson added to his position in the Dec. 31, 2010 quarter by 216.04% and again in the March 31, 2011 quarter by 43.24%.
He has been very versatile with this stock by buying and selling hundreds of thousands of shares since late 2009. The stock price has been increasing steadily since then. Right now Robertson is on an upswing along with the stock price.
No. 3: Cardiome Pharma Corp. (CRME, Financial), Weightings: 2.8% - 2,532,340 Shares
Cardiome Pharma Corp. is a product-focused cardiovascular drug development company with two clinical drug programs focused on atrial arrhythmia (intravenous and oral dosing), and a pre-clinical program directed at improving cardiovascular function. It has a market cap of $287.5 million; its shares were traded at around $4.11 with a P/E ratio of 22.4 and P/S ratio of 4.3.
TheStreet’s rating of this stock has been upgraded from sell to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its good cash flow from operations, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and notable return on equity. Despite currently having a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, it is higher than that of the industry average, implying that management of debt levels may need to be evaluated further. Even though the debt-to-equity ratio shows mixed results, the company's quick ratio of 13.93 is very high and demonstrates very strong liquidity.
Cardiome Pharma Corp.’s net income has significantly decreased by 146.2% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $15.47 million to -$7.15 million. Net operating cash flow has increased 18.43% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -4.63%.
Despite the heavy decline in its share price, this stock is still more expensive (when compared to its current earnings) than most other companies in its industry. This company has not demonstrated a clear trend in earnings over the past two years, making it difficult to accurately predict earnings for the coming year. The company has lost money in years past, and the recent surge in earnings should be examined closely as to whether the gains were of a one-time nature or are a sustainable trend of strong growth. The company has many drugs for treating heart illnesses which appear to have solid prospects, making CRME a stock to watch.
Julian Robertson owns 2,532,340 shares of CRME, valued as $11 million as of March 31, 2011, which accounts for 2.8% of his equity portfolio. Julian Robertson added his positions in the Dec. 31, 2010 quarter by 9.55%, again in the March 31, 2011 quarter by 6.15%. He has been steadily increasing his position since mid-2010, which was the stock’s peck since late 2008, but the stock price has not performed as well as he would hope. The stock price is starting to increase again, so it is interesting if Robertson will invest more or will just hold his position.
Stocks that Julian Robertson keeps selling
No. 1: Apple Inc. (AAPL, Financial), Weightings: 7.3% - 81,130 Shares
Apple Computer Inc. designs, manufactures and markets personal computers and related personal computing and communicating solutions for sale primarily to education, creative, consumer and business customers. It has a market cap of $306.12 billion; its shares were traded at around $325.3 with a P/E ratio of 15.8 and P/S ratio of 4.6. Apple Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 59.8% over the past five years. Over the past 90 days shares of Apple Inc. have swan-dived lower and lower, recently touching $310.50, considering that AAPL was trading near $360 in February.
Apple insider recently reported that Mac sales to enterprise customers grew 66% year over year compared to just a 4.5% growth for the overall enterprise PC market. That rate of growth is hugely impressive and if it continues, we can expect Apple to eventually reach 20% market share in the overall PC market. If Apple is able to substantially grow its mobile market share (by lowering prices) the iOS platform and all the apps that run on it is a new use of the Internet.
There is no company better positioned to profit from this revolution than Apple. With the dominance in the digital music player market (iPod has roughly 75% of that market), Apple is well protected from those competitors. iAds are a revolutionary way for businesses to reach customers. The ads are interactive, entertaining, and they engage potential customers in a way in which the old interruption marketing could not. As Apple TV matures and gains an audience, iAds could become a key aspect of our TV watching habits as well.
The common conception of AAPL’s performance is just a matter of time of when the new Apple product comes out, and for 2011 it is the iPhone 5 coming in September. On the other hand, skeptics believe that AAPL cannot go up forever with no competition.
Julian Robertson owns 81,130 shares of AAPL, valued as $28 million as of March 31, 2011, which accounts for 7.3% of his equity portfolio. Julian Robertson reduced his positions in the Dec. 31, 2010 quarter by 4.51%, again in the March 31, 2011 quarter by 33.41%.
Robertson has gone through two cycles with this stock since late 2008, buying about 150,000 shares and slowly selling a few thousand shares over a period of about a year, and he repeated that with another huge buy in mid-2010. Currently Robertson is on his selling phase. The stock price was low at about $95 when he first bought the stock in 2008 and has only increased since.
No. 2: Theravance Inc. (THRX, Financial), Weightings: 1.32% - 211,686 Shares
Theravance Inc. is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule medicines for unmet medical needs across a number of therapeutic areas including respiratory disease, bacterial infections, overactive bladder and gastrointestinal disorders. Theravance Inc. has a market cap of $1.97 billion; its shares were traded at around $22.12 with and P/S ratio of 81.5. The stock has performed poorly over the last month, losing 10.57%. Net insider purchases over the past 6 months were at 5.19 million, representing 9.92% of the company's 52.32 million-share float. The stock is a short squeeze candidate, with a short float at 8.61% (equivalent to 14.49 days of average volume).
THRX is a generally low-revenue biotech company that works with Glaxo-Smith Kline (GSK, Financial) to produce the next-generation COPD-asthma products. GSK's Advair produces almost $8 billion in revenues for Glaxo, and THRX's product, Relovair would produce 15% on the first $3 billion in sales and 5% thereafter with virtually no drug application costs to Theravance upon approval of its LABA and ICS combination drugs.
THRX also has a partnership with Astellas for commercialization of MRSA (difficult-to-treat hospital staph infection) drug Vibativ in stage 3 and also pending approval in the EU. 2011 and 2012 milestone payments from both GSK and Astellas appear attainable. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) invested $6.7 million in THRX, at $25.60 per share. GSK now owns around 19% of Theravance’s outstanding capital stock. THRX is a biopharmaceutical company with a market cap of $2.29 billion, and recently received approval for its Vibativ drug. The firm has not had positive earnings yet, but should turn that around in the next few years because of the Vibativ approval. The company has several other drugs in late stages of testing and approval, giving it further growth potential.
Theravance also has very little debt. This stock is very dependent on others and cannot be viewed on its own. It is tough to value a company yet to sell a product, and concerns still exist over Vibativ, both in terms of health risks and market viability. While other developmental drugs may be promising, they are far from safe bets, and the company may never generate significant profits to justify the current stock price. The best chance for Theravance is probably to appreciate is a full takeover by GSK or another industry competitor.
Julian Robertson owns 211,686 shares of THRX, valued as $5 million as of March 31, 2011, which accounts for 1.32% of his equity portfolio. Julian Robertson reduced his positions in the Dec. 31, 2010 quarter by 6.95%, again in the March 31, 2011 quarter by 20.94%. He bought almost 300,000 shares of this stock in late 2010, and has been selling ever since. The stock price did increase but leveled off for now.
Also check out the Undervalued Stocks, Top Growth Companies, and High Yield stocks of Julian Robertson.
