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Activist hedge fund Corvex Management disclosed it owns 12.6 percent of Vestis Corp., a provider of uniform rentals and workplace supplies. In the filing, Corvex said the shares are undervalued and represented an attractive investment opportunity. It also said it intends to engage in discussions with management and the board of directors “regarding various options” to “significantly enhance stockholder value.”
Another activist hedge fund Starboard Value unloaded more than 1.9 million shares of GoDaddy, or more than 22 percent of its stake. This reduced the hedge fund firm’s stake to roughly 4 percent, below the 5 percent threshold requiring it to report additional sales on a timely basis. Even so, the web services company remains by far Starboard’s largest U.S. listed long, accounting for 17.5 percent of assets. Starboard sent a letter in January to management urging it to provide guidance on boosting free cash flow and margins.
RA Capital Management boosted its stake in Werewolf Therapeutics, which is developing modified cytokines for cancer treatment. The additional shares are the result of vesting stock options held by Derek DiRocco, a RA Capital partner, for the benefit of RA Capital. The stock, however, remains a very small part of the health care focused hedge fund’s portfolio.
OrbiMed Advisors disclosed that it received pre-funded warrants to purchase more than 1.44 million shares and common warrants to purchase nearly 1.4 million shares of Corvus Pharmaceuticals as part of the company’s May 3 offering. The healthcare hedge fund specialist owns more than 6.9 million shares, or 11.1 percent of the total outstanding of the company, which focuses on the development and commercialization of immune modulator product candidates to treat solid cancers, T cell lymphomas, autoimmune, allergic, and infectious diseases.
In the filing OrbiMed indicated it is taking an activist role in the company. It said it plans to review its investment on the basis of various factors, including the company’s business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, general economic and industry conditions, the securities markets in general and those for the company’s shares in particular, as well as other developments and other investment opportunities. Based upon the review, OrbiMed said it will take actions in the future as it “may deem appropriate in light of the circumstances existing from time to time.” Shares of Corvus are trading slightly below $2, way down from its all-time high of $6.80 in September 2021.
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EcoR1 Capital bought more than 2.8 million shares of Morphic Holding, boosting its stake to more than 3 million shares. As a result, the life sciences hedge fund firm now owns 6 percent of the biopharma trying to develop oral small-molecule integrin therapeutics. EcoR1 is also now the company’s sixth largest shareholder.
Millennium Management disclosed it owns more than 4.8 million shares of GoodRx Holdings, or 5.1 percent of the total outstanding. The position is inconsequential, however, to the multistrategy giant. GoodRx runs a prescription drug comparison price shopping platform.
RA Capital Management initiated a more than 3.2 million share position in Zura Bio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company which focuses on developing novel medicines for immune and inflammatory disorders. The hedge fund firm, which specializes in biopharma and life sciences investments is now the eighth largest shareholder. However, the stock is a very small part of RA Capital’s portfolio, Zura began trading in March 2023 after merging with JATT Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
RA Capital separately disclosed it doubled its stake in Avidity Biosciences, which is trying to develop a new class of RNA therapeutics called Antibody Oligonucleotide Conjugates (AOCs). The stock is now RA Capital’s 18th largest U.S. listed long.
