Patient Capital Management, a Baltimore-based investment firm, highlighted Precigen Inc. in its third-quarter 2026 investor letter for the Patient Opportunity Equity Strategy, attributing the company's strong performance to the commercial launch of its first drug, Papzimeous. The strategy outperformed the S&P 500 in the latest quarter, gaining 4.32% compared to the index's 2.30%, and is up 14.93% year-to-date versus the S&P 500's 12.75% gain. The fund described the market as part of a long bull run that has compounded at 16.9% per year since March 2009, noting that while rate increases present risks, strong corporate earnings suggest potential despite investor skepticism over rising valuations.
Precigen, a discovery and clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on gene and cell therapies for immuno-oncology, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases, closed at $7.81 on October 9, 2026, with a market capitalization of $2.8 billion. The stock posted an approximately 86.84% year-to-date gain, trading within a 52-week range of $3.04 to $8.98. Patient Capital noted that it led Precigen's capital raise at the end of 2024 and described the subsequent stock movement as a "10-bagger," driven by the successful launch of Papzimeous for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, a rare disease caused by the HPV virus.
The fund stated that its initial investment thesis relied on the belief that enormous upside potential more than compensated for downside risk, observing that it only takes a few big winners to pay for many losers. Following a recent meeting with management, Patient Capital continued to see significant upside potential, pointing to the FDA platform designation granted to Precigen's Adenoverse technology. This designation eases approval requirements for other Adenoverse-related treatments, such as those for HPV cancers. The fund expects solid results from upcoming trial data for head-and-neck and cervical cancer and identified significant potential in Precigen's CAR-T program.
At a post-move price of $7.60, Patient Capital argued that the stock price does not yet fully reflect the value of Papzimeous or other pipeline assets. However, earlier coverage noted that while FDA recognition may streamline development, unquantified savings and clinical trial demands leave ultimate benefits uncertain. Data from Insider Monkey indicates that 27 hedge fund portfolios held Precigen at the end of the second quarter, down from 29 in the previous quarter. The publication noted that while it acknowledges Precigen's potential, it believes certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk.