By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Three prominent investment firms are poised to change bets on ailing healthcare giant CVS Health (NYSE:) and added to existing bets and acquired new positions during the third quarter, filings show. supervisors.
Longtime investor Glenview Capital Management bought 2.8 million CVS shares in the third quarter, increasing its stake by 31%. The filing shows that the company owned 0.95% of the company as of September 30.
Sachem Head Capital Management, which added to its CVS position in the second quarter, bought more than 1 million shares during the three months ended September 30, increasing its position by 44%. CVS is now the hedge fund’s second-largest holding company. Sachem Head, run by former Pershing Square Capital Management partner Scott Ferguson, owned 0.28% of CVS at the end of the third quarter.
Third Point, run by billionaire investor Daniel Loeb, built a new position in CVS by buying 1.6 million shares. At the end of September it owned 0.13% of the company.
All shares purchased before CVS in October called for David Joyner to replace Karen Lynch as CEO after the stock price plummeted amid worsening financial forecasts. Shares are down 32% since January.
Investors became more agitated over the summer, and Glenview’s Larry Robbins, who likes to be called a constructivist shareholder, recently met with executives to push for changes. He did not call for the company to be split up.
Analysts had speculated that other investors would soon step in and vociferously demand changes, including replacing Lynch as CEO.
So far, neither Third Point nor Sachem Head have made any public demands of CVS.
Investors are required to file so-called 13-F filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to show what they owned in shares of U.S. companies at the end of the quarter.
While the filings are retrospective, they are closely monitored for clues that corporate activist investors might target.
