Baker Bros. Buys $24.3 Million of Kodiak Sciences Stock

Baker Bros. Advisors LP bought 247,090 shares of Kodiak Sciences Inc. (KOD) common stock for about $24.3 million on Nov. 4 and Nov. 5, according to a Form 4 filed Nov. 6. Every reported transaction was at $98.51 a share.

The filing lists four purchases. On Nov. 4, Baker Bros. bought 151,916 shares for about $15.0 million and another 8,742 shares for about $861,000. On Nov. 5 it bought 81,729 shares for about $8.1 million and 4,703 shares for about $463,000. The filer is listed as a director and a 10% owner. None of the purchases was made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan.

A Form 4 is the report that officers, directors and holders of more than 10% of a company's stock must file within two business days of a trade in its shares. These purchases carry transaction code P, which marks an open-market or private purchase paid for by the insider, as opposed to grants, option exercises or purchases under an employee plan. The Nov. 4 purchases were filed two days after the trade and the Nov. 5 purchases one day after.

Each purchase is reported as an indirect holding. The 151,916-share purchase raised one holding from 20,191,214 shares to 20,343,130 on Nov. 4, an increase of 0.8%. The 81,729-share purchase on Nov. 5 took that holding to 20,424,859 shares, an increase of 0.4%.

The smaller purchases moved a different indirect holding. The 8,742 shares bought on Nov. 4 lifted it from 1,669,727 shares to 1,678,469, an increase of 0.5%. The 4,703 shares bought on Nov. 5 brought it to 1,683,172 shares, an increase of 0.3%.

Baker Bros. had been buying before this filing. Form 4s filed before Nov. 4 show 82 open-market purchases by Kodiak insiders since July 23, worth about $157 million, all from one buyer. Baker Bros. Advisors LP is the buyer named on the largest purchases listed, all dated Sept. 28. The biggest of them was 278,978 shares for about $20.2 million. The last of those earlier purchases was dated Sept. 29, 36 days before the first of the Nov. 4 transactions.

Open-market selling in the same window came from one seller. Filings show eight sales worth about $2.7 million, all by Chief Financial Officer John A. Borgeson. His largest sales were dated Oct. 21: 8,514 shares for about $746,000, 7,623 shares for about $684,000 and 5,101 shares for about $464,000. The last of his sales came 14 days before Baker Bros.' first purchase in this filing.

Borgeson's most recent sale in the window was dated Oct. 21.