Bad Data a Risk for Healthcare-Focused Pro

For investors interested in healthcare stocks, investment firm Sectoral Asset Management, which specializes in the healthcare sector, has been a Pro to watch. However, the firm may have been stung by a major healthcare stock flame out last month.

Looking at Sectoral’s top-15, U.S.-listed, equity holdings from the end of Q1, the major red flag is genetic analysis firm Sequenom (Nasdaq: SQNM). The firm’s shares were crushed at the end of April when it revealed its employees mishandled data related to its noninvasive prenatal Down Syndrome test. According to filings with the SEC, Sectoral had a 5.9-million share stake in Sequenom at the end of Q1, up 1.7 million shares from the prior quarter. If Sectoral is still holding those shares, it’s down -77% on the stake since the end of Q1.

Elsewhere during Q1, Sectoral reopened a stake in big biotech Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) and increased stakes in Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG), Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN), and Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN).

Meanwhile, the firm was cutting stakes in Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB), Myriad Genetics (Nasdaq: MYGN), Genzyme (Nasdaq: GENZ), and Onyx Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ONXX).

At tickerspy.com, members can track Sectoral’s latest holdings, see a graph of their combined performance, and be notified when new holdings are made public.

Over the last month, all but three of tickerspy’s 31 healthcare Indexes are in the green. Tops over that period is the Hospital Stocks Index, which is up by nearly 50%, and has been led by Tenet Healthcare (THC), which has more than doubled.

Pro portfolio performance is based on institutions’ top-15 holdings as disclosed in quarter-end filings with the SEC. Pro performance does not take into account additional holdings beyond the top 15 nor does it include positions that are not required to be disclosed by the SEC. As such, Pro portfolio performance should be considered an approximation and not a precise record of how an institution has performed over time.

Tags: ALXN, AMGN, BIIB, CELG, GENZ, GILD, MYGN, ONXX, SQNM, THC