Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio), head of Point72 Asset Management, disclosed this week his firm upped its stake in Bicycle Therapeutics PLC (BCYC, Financial) by 175.4%.
With the goal of generating superior risk-adjusted returns, the billionaire guru's Stamford, Connecticut-based firm invests in a wide range of asset classes worldwide. Its long-short strategy is based on bottom-up research processes focusing on fundamentals and macroeconomic conditions.
According to GuruFocus Real-Time Picks, a Premium feature, Cohen picked up an additional 702,477 shares of the U.K.-based biopharmaceutical company on Sept. 14. The stock traded for an average price of $19.08 per share on the day of the transaction.
He now holds a total of 1.1 million shares, which represent 0.14% of the equity portfolio. GuruFocus estimates Cohen has gained 29.46% on the investment since establishing it in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, which develops a novel class of medicines that target oncology indications with high unmet needs, has a $389.35 million market cap; its shares were trading around $20 on Wednesday with a price-book ratio of 5.15 and a price-sales ratio of 42.33.
The median price-sales chart shows the stock is trading above its historical value, suggesting it is overpriced.
Bicycle reported its second-quarter results on Aug. 5, posting a loss of 67 cents per share. Cash and cash equivalents were $96.9 million, while research and development expenses totaled $8 million. General and administrative costs came in at $6.2 million.
In a statement, CEO Kevin Lee, Ph.D, discussed the company's ongoing projects, which he said have "made significant progress" despite challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"In the coming months, we look forward to initiating the Phase IIa trial of BT1718 and the Phase I/II trial of BT8009," he said. "We are also continuing to advance BT5528 in the dose escalation portion of a Phase I/II trial, and we will be deploying our proprietary EphA2 immunohistochemistry, or IHC, assay to select and enroll EphA2-positive patients in the Phase I trial. We remain confident in our ability to achieve our near-term milestones, which should help enable our vision of pioneering the development of novel therapies for patients suffering from cancer and other serious diseases."
GuruFocus rated Bicycle's financial strength 6 out of 10 on the back of comfortable interest coverage and a robust Altman Z-Score of 3.15.
The company is being weighed down, however, by negative margins and returns that underperform over half of its competitors. In addition, Bicycle has recorded a decline in revenue per share over the past 12 months.
With a 5.72% stake, Cohen is the company's largest guru shareholder. Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio)' Renaissance Technologies also owns the stock.
Portfolio composition
Cohen's $15.33 billion equity portfolio, which was composed of 778 stocks as of the three months ended June 30, is most heavily invested in the health care, technology and consumer cyclical sectors.
Additional biotech stocks the guru was invested in as of the end of the second quarter included Calithera Biosciences Inc. (CALA, Financial), Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. (APVO, Financial), Affimed NV (AFMD, Financial), Acorda Theraputics Inc. (ACOR, Financial) and Ideaya Biosciences Inc. (IDYA, Financial), among many others.
Disclosure: No positions.
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