market folly

John Paulson's hedge fund firm Paulson & Co has filed a Form 4 with the SEC regarding their position in Mallinckrodt (MNK).  Per the filing, Paulson acquired 786,207 shares on  May 7th, 8th, and 9th at prices between $73.0131 and $76.8431. 

After these transactions, Paulson now owns over 6.7 million MNK shares.  For a reference point, they owned 5.6 million shares at the end of 2013 per their 13F filing.  The hedge fund was recently granted an option to increase its stake in MNK to 20%.

Mallinkckrodt has been one of the many pharmaceutical plays involved in M&A lately.  After acquiring Cadence Pharmaceuticals, they recently announced an agreement to acquire the controversial Questcor Pharma (QCOR).  Barry Rosenstein's hedge fund JANA Partners also has a sizable stake in MNK as well.

Per Google Finance, Mallinckrodt is "a global specialty pharmaceuticals company. The Company develops, manufactures, markets and distributes both branded and generic specialty pharmaceuticals, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and diagnostic imaging agents. The Company uses its API products in the manufacture of its generic pharmaceuticals and also sells them to other pharmaceutical companies. The Company operates through two segments: Specialty Pharmaceuticals and Global Medical Imaging."

You can view other portfolio activity from Paulson & Co here.