Paulson & Co. Inc., once Boston Scientific Corp.’s (NYSE:BSX) largest shareholder, continued to liquidate its position in BSX during the first quarter, selling off some 10 million shares from its stake in the Natick, Mass.-based medical device company.
The New York-based hedge fund has been steadily selling off its BSX shares over the last year. It now has just 15 million shares, valued at $107.9 million, according to regulatory filings. Paulson & Co. pared its stake by 10 million shares during first quarter, when BSX share prices ranged from $7.57 Dec. 31 to $7.19 by March 31. That leaves Paulson fetching between $72 million and $76 million with the sell-off.
The firm had owned nearly 100 million shares, worth $715.8 million, as of the end of the first quarter in 2010, according to a filing with the federal Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund ditched more than 19.1 million shares during the second quarter last year, according to another SEC filing, and sold off some 55 million shares during the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2010.
Interestingly, as Paulson & Co. has been shedding its stake in Boston Scientific, it seems to have found refuge in the embrace of one of BoSci’s largest rivals, Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT).
Paulson & Co. began buying up Medtronic stock in the fourth quarter of 2010, when it acquired 9.1 million shares valued at $339 million. The fund increased its ownership stake marginally in the first quarter of 2011, reporting 9.3 million shares, valued at $366 million.
The Paulson fund also owns a very small stake in St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) of about 170,000 shares.
The hedge fund is run by John Paulson, the billionaire financier who’s made frequent headlines over the past two years. Paulson was a player in the fallout over Goldman Sachs & Co.’s sub-prime mortgage fiasco last spring; his enormous personal wealth makes him all the more conspicuous. Last month the Wall Street Journal pegged his personal income at $5 billion for 2010.
