William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management exercised call options to purchase more than 24.8 million shares of Allergan in order to acquire voting shares in the stock, according to a regulatory filing. The transactions were made on May 1 after Pershing Square received early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. The New York activist hedge fund is teaming up with Valeant Pharmaceuticals in an attempt to take over Allergan.
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Kenneth Griffin’s Citadel Advisors disclosed large passive stakes in at least three stocks. The Chicago firm reported a 5.2 percent position in Cornerstone OnDemand, a maker of performance management software. Citadel also reported sizable stakes in two independent oil and gas exploration companies — 5.7 percent of Ultra Petroleum Corp. and 6.3 percent of Athlon Energy, Inc.
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Adage Capital Partners, disclosed it owns 6.3 percent of Questcor Pharmaceuticals, which makes drugs for the treatment of patients with serious, difficult-to-treat autoimmune and inflammatory disorders.
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New York-based Alden Global Capital, a $2 billion opportunistic event-driven firm, posted a 1.6 percent gain for April in its flagship fund, Alden Global Opportunities, and is now up 17.4 percent year-to-date. Alden Global was up 32 percent in 2013.
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UBS raised its rating on LinkedIn, a popular momentum stock, to Buy and maintained its $225 price target. “We believe LinkedIn has a first mover (and sustainable) advantage as a social network for the professional community on a global scale,” UBS states in a note. “We believe the stock at these levels presents a very compelling risk/reward.”
