PGIM Jennison Health Sciences Fund released its second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund modestly underperformed the S&P 1500 Health Care Index in the quarter which declined 1.1%. Security selection within pharmaceuticals, MedTech, and health care provides & services contributed the most value during the quarter, while stock selection within Biotechnology was largely detracted. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
PGIM Jennison Health Sciences Fund highlighted stocks like Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNS), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNS) is a pharmaceutical company. The one-month return of Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNS) was 22.30%, and its shares lost 78.56% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 2, 2024, Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNS) stock closed at $1.70 per share with a market capitalization of $93.643 million.
PGIM Jennison Health Sciences Fund stated the following regarding Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNS) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNS) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of Ganaxolone, a GABA_A receptor modulating mechanism intended to treat various forms of epilepsy. Their approved asset, Ztalmy, launched in July 2022 and is an oral suspension formulation of Ganaxolone for Cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5) deficiency disorder (CDD) – a rare, genetic, pediatric epilepsy syndrome. The company is also developing an IV formulation of Ganaxolone for refractory status epilepticus (RSE), another seizure condition. Marinus shares modestly sold off in March, largely in line with the general biotech market. Unfortunately, in April, the RAISE trial read out negatively and it looks like this asset will not be able to get FDA approval. The company is awaiting the full details of the data and we do not yet know exactly what went wrong in the trial. The company will no longer be allocating capital to the IV formulation and will be focusing on Ztalmy and formulating a go forward plan in the coming months. As a result, we meaningfully reduced our position size.”
A biological researcher studying the interaction of GABAA receptors on a computer screen.
Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNS) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 17 hedge fund portfolios held Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNS) at the end of the second quarter which was 19 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNS) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.