Wall Street’s "hedge fund king" Steven Cohen increased his holdings in Stryker Corp. (NYSE:SYK) during the second quarter by an astounding 1858 percent, bringing his stake to nearly 1.4 million shares.
Cohen paid between $57.38 and $64 per share, based on closing prices for Stryker stock during the second quarter, coming to between $75.2 million and $84 million for the 1.3 million shares added that quarter.
At an average price of $60.13, Cohen’s increase cost about $79 million.
Cohen is known on The Street for his role as founder and manager of SAC Capital Advisors, a $17.4 billion hedge fund.
Cohen held 70,573 shares of Stryker stock valued at about $4.3 million at the end of March, SEC filings show. He now holds 1,381,809 shares worth more than $81 million, according to recent filings.
Stryker heir Ronda Stryker sold off another large chunk of shares during Q2, letting go of more than 753 million shares worth nearly $56 million during the quarter. The sell-off continues her plan to sell 9,000 shares per day through 2011.
Stryker’s second quarter earnings report showed a slide in profits despite a top-line gain.
Stryker, which ranked 12th on the MassDevice Big 100 list of the world’s largest medical device companies, posted earnings of $309 million, or 79 cents per diluted share, on sales of $2.05 billion during the three months ended June 30. That compares with profits of $319 million, or 80 cents diluted EPS, on sales of $1.76 billion during the same period last year.