Aquinox Rising After Baker Brothers Goes Long...Again

Shares of Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: AQXP) are surging on Monday.

The surge was triggered by a new increase in the stake of biotech-focused hedge fund Baker Bros.

Other hedge funds betting on the company are RA Capital Management and Broadfin Capital.

Shares of Aquinox rose more than 4 percent on Monday morning after biotech-focused hedge fund Baker Bros. Advisors LP, managed by Julian and Felix Baker, disclosed a 58 percent increase in its exposure to the company.

Baker Bros. And Aquinox

According a Schedule 13D filed with the SEC, the firm (and the brothers) recently acquired more than 2.48 million shares for $15.50 per share, and now beneficially own 6,749,592 shares of Common Stock, which represent 39.6 percent of the total shares outstanding.

It is interesting to note, however, that Baker Bros. already held a stake of almost 40 percent in Aquinox. On early August, the funds had declared holding 4,267,300 shares, which accounted for 39.8 percent of the shares outstanding at the time of the filing. Nonetheless, between August and September, the total shares of common stock outstanding rose from 10,727,221 to 17,052,221 – therefore, despite the marked boost that the firms’ wage witnessed, its ownership remained the same – from a percentage standpoint.

Other Firms' Stakes

While the Baker brothers are the largest institutional investors in the small-cap clinical stage pharmaceutical company, other firms also hold big stakes in it. For instance, on late August, Peter Kolchinsky’s RA Capital Management acknowledged holding 1,032,151 shares of the company, while Kevin Kotler's Broadfin Capital disclosed ownership of 531,768 shares of the company, worth almost $3.7 million, as of the end of the second quarter of the year.Image Credit: Public Domain