Cohen stake in Praxis

 Billionaire Steve Cohen is among these Wall Street greats. Serving as Point72’s Chairman, CEO and President, Cohen has built his fortune – around $17.5 billion – using a high-risk/high-reward strategy. Throughout his career, Cohen has consistently delivered huge returns to clients, giving him guru-like status on the Street.

Turning to Cohen for inspiration, we took a closer look at two penny stocks Cohen’s Point72 made moves on recently. In fact, it’s not only Cohen who favors these names. Using the TipRanks database, we found that both are also rated as ‘Strong Buys’ by the analyst consensus. Not to mention colossal upside potential is on the table. We’re talking about over 500% here.

Praxis Precision Medicines (PRAX)

We’ll start with Praxis Precision Medicines, a biopharmaceutical company focused on diseases of the central nervous system, or CNS. Specifically, the company is working on new treatments for movement disorders and epileptic seizure disorders, two sets of CNS conditions connected by neuronal imbalances. The company is following a dual-track research pipeline, using two proprietary platforms to develop new drug candidates: Cerebrum, a small molecule platform, and Solidus, an ASO (antisense oligonucleotide) platform.

The company’s research is based on the application of genetic insights and an understanding of the biological targets and circuits in the brain. Between the two platforms, Praxis has 4 active pipeline programs in the clinic.

The standout drug candidate here is ulixacaltamide. Earlier this month, Praxis announced positive data from the randomized withdrawal sub-study and long-term extension of the Essential1 study for this candidate in the treatment of essential tremors. The study showed that patients switched from ulixacaltanide to placebo experienced a worsening of symptoms. The sub-study execution also confirmed design features of the planned Phase 3 study, scheduled to begin during 4Q23. The company has already had a favorable end-of-phase-2 meeting with the FDA, in preparation for Phase 3 initiation.

Also of note is the company’s drug candidate PRAX-628, a potential treatment for focal epilepsy. This program has completed Phase 1 testing, and Praxis recently released positive results from the EEG analysis following that trial. PRAX-628 is currently undergoing Phase 2 testing, and the initial data readout from that study is expected in 2H23.

In another upcoming catalyst, Praxis expects to release data from the Phase 2 EMBOLD study of PRAX-562 in the treatment of pediatric patients with developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEEs) during the fourth quarter of this year.

These research tracks have caught the eye of Steve Cohen during Q2. In that quarter, Cohen bought 10,500,000 shares of PRAX, a massive increase from his previous holding of 50,000 – and a strong vote of confidence in the company. Cohen’s holding here is worth $11.39 million at current prices.

The billionaire investor is far from Praxis’ only bullish fan. Piper Sandler analyst Yasmeen Rahimi covers this stock and is impressed with what she sees – especially on the ulixacaltamide track.

“We are pleased to report that PRAX has been making significant progress across their four pipeline programs, especially highlighting that the Ph3 program in ET with ulixacaltamide is on track to start enrollment as soon as October 1 (4Q23) with topline in 2H24. We continue to have high conviction on a positive readout of the primary endpoint of mADL11, given that Essential1 showed a significant -1.81 delta difference (-2.69 vs -0.88 placebo; p=0.042), despite not being powered on that measure… Overall we remain bullish on the stock and see a buying opportunity for PRAX with ~1 year out from topline Ph3 data,” Rahimi wrote.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-steve-cohen-loads-2-140458179.html