Guru Martin Whitman is the founder of Third Avenue Management (Trades, Portfolio). Whitman was born in the Bronx, where he grew up. He went on to graduate from Syracuse University with a degree in business administration. Whitman also has a master's in economics from the The New School.
Baxalta is a biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures, and markets a portfolio of products primarily for the treatment of hematology and immunology worldwide. The company also works on fixing solutions, treating bleeding disorders, as well as chronic and acute medical conditions.
Baxalta has a market cap of $27.23 billion, an enterprise value of $31.18 billion, a P/B ratio of 6.82 and a dividend yield of 0.35%
Third Avenue commented on the decision to purchase Baxalta: “Baxalta is the biopharmaceuticals business recently spun off from Baxter International Inc. We have followed Baxter for years, as it is a company that we have long admired. Baxalta is a leader in differentiated therapies that seek to address unmet medical needs across many disease areas such as hemophilia, immunology and more recently, oncology. We are attracted to the company due to its solid market position, the chronic use profile of its core drugs, opportunities for growth and solid financial position.”
Below is a Peter Lynch chart for Baxalta.
GuruFocus ranks the company’s financial strength with a 6/10 rating. The company has a cash to debt ratio of 0.25, which is also a negative warning sign that Baxalta is in a volatile financial position.
It is interesting that Third Avenue believes that Baxalta has a solid financial position when the company's cash to debt ratio is low compared to other companies in their industry.
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