Valeant (VRX) In Free Fall as Large Holders May Finally Be Crying Uncle
Shares of embattled pharmaceutical company Valeant Pharma (NYSE: VRX) are in free fall Thursday. Shares last traded down 18% to $75. All the talk on Wall Street is that large shareholders are finally throwing in the towel, forced or otherwise, following allegations of prescription and medicare fraud, among other deceitful dealings.
The most well known shareholder of Valeant is Bill Ackman, who just last week held a 4-hour conference call to defend the company. Ackman holds about 21.5 million shares, recently buying an additional 2 million shares following recent short-seller allegations. His average price is $186, meaning he is down 60% currently.
Sequoia Funds is the largest shareholder, owning 33.9 million shares based on the most recent data. Meanwhile, T-Rowe Price held about 20.5 million shares at the end of June, ValueAct Capital held about 15 million shares, Fidelity 12.2 million and Paulson & Co. 9 million, among a host of others on a "who's who" list of shareholders.