Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NBIX): Among Billionaire Cliff Asness' Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential
Cliff Asness, the founder, managing principal, and chief investment officer of AQR Capital Management, is a well-known figure in the world of finance. Starting with a $10 million commitment from a small group of investors in 1995, Asness was able to boost the Goldman Sachs Global Alpha Fund's assets to more than $100 million in just a handful of months. Cliff Asness' investment strategies, which focus on value and momentum, have delivered exceptional returns for AQR, setting him apart from his fellow hedge fund managers. As a testament, the fund has produced positive returns over the last three years, with its greatest year in 2022, when it returned 43.5%.
The first quarter of 2025 continued that momentum. As Wall Street grappled with increased volatility resulting from President Donald Trump's unpredictable tariff policy, AQR Capital Management outperformed the market by 9%. The firm's Apex strategy, a $3 billion multi-strategy fund that includes equities, macro, and arbitrage trades, rose 3.4% in March, adding to its strong quarterly performance. Meanwhile, AQR's Delphi Long-Short Equity Strategy returned 9.7%, while its trend-following Helix strategy gained 3% during the same period.
Cliff Asness has repeatedly stated that he is not an admirer of Bitcoin. In a recent CNBC interview, the hedge fund manager voiced pessimism about Bitcoin, claiming that it had no realistic use case, although he did not rule out the possibility that the leading cryptocurrency has formed a bubble. Back in February, the billionaire stated that Bitcoin and the S&P 500, were basically 'the same thing' with varying amounts of volatility. Asness has also questioned the notion that Bitcoin must be seen as a store of value simply because it has a limited supply.
The billionaire seemed even more critical of the idea of a cryptocurrency reserve, a stance that sharply contrasts with President Donald Trump's. In a piece written for The Free Press, the money manager stated his thoughts about the President's executive order:
'I've been managing money for 33 years now with some modest success. While there are some worthy competitors, it's hard for me to remember a much worse idea than the U.S. launching a 'strategic cryptocurrency reserve.' Nevertheless, on Thursday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for just such a fund. David Sacks—Trump's crypto czar—tweeted that the reserve would be 'like a digital Fort Knox,' perhaps forgetting that the U.S. has been off the gold standard since 1933. In any case, his words do not diminish my scorn for this dangerous boondoggle, as I will explain below.
For this article, we examined AQR Capital Management's Q4 2024 13F filings to list down billionaire Cliff Asness' stock picks with the highest upside potential. We ranked the companies in ascending order of their upside potential. These equities are also popular among elite hedge funds.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points ().
Cliff Asness of AQR Capital ManagementNeurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:NBIX) is a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in developing medicines for neurological, neuroendocrine, and neuropsychiatric illnesses. INGREZZA, the company's flagship medicine, treats tardive dyskinesia and chorea in Huntington's disease.The company additionally offers CRENESSITY, a first-in-class medication for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), and continues partnerships for treatments on endometriosis and uterine fibroids.
On April 28, Canaccord Genuity revised its financial outlook for Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:NBIX), lowering the stock's price target from $163 to $158, while maintaining a Buy rating. Sumant Kulkarni, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, stated that the revised model anticipates INGREZZA sales of $550 million, down from the prior estimate of $605 million. Despite this adjustment, Kulkarni noted that the expected sales for 2025 remain at $2.5 billion, which is consistent with Neurocrine Biosciences' own predictions and represents a 9% increase over the estimated sales for 2024.
Overall, NBIX ranks 2nd on our list of billionaire Cliff Asness' stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential for NBIX as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NBIX but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this .
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US-China talks to restart as hopes grow for trade war truce extension
The US and China are due to start a fresh round of talks on Monday as expectations grow that the world's two biggest economies could agree a 90-day extension to their trade war truce. The meetings in Sweden - led on Washington's side by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and for Beijing by Vice Premier He Lifeng - come hours after US President Donald Trump announced a framework tariffs deal with the European Union. The current 90-day truce between the US and China - which saw the two countries temporarily lowering tariffs on each other - is set to end on 12 August. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, the US and China had raised import levies on each other to more than 100%. The current 90-day tariffs pause came after top officials from the US and China met in Geneva and London earlier this year. Last week, Bessent said talks with China were in "a very good place" and suggested the new round of talks could result in a second truce. On Monday, citing sources on both sides, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that the US and China are expected to extend the truce by another three months. The BBC has contacted the Chinese embassy in the US and the US Treasury Department for comment. The latest US-China talks come after Washington struck deals with both the EU and Japan in the last week. On Sunday, Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a trade agreement framework. It ended a months-long standoff between two of the world's biggest economic partners. Last week, Trump said Washington had agreed a "massive" trade deal with Tokyo. Under the agreement, Japan would invest $550bn (£407bn) in the US while its goods sold to America would be taxed at 15% when they reach the country - below the 25% tariff Trump had threatened. The US has also struck tariffs deals with the UK, Indonesia and Vietnam. At 10%, Britain has negotiated the lowest US tariff rate so far. No similar breakthrough is expected from the US-China talks this week but, with expectations of an extension to their truce, there are hopes that global trade will not be hit by fresh tariffs disruption. Asia is reeling from Trump's tariff salvo – is anyone winning? What the US-Japan deal means for Asia and the world Sign in to access your portfolio
CNBC
6 minutes ago
- CNBC
Euro rises after U.S., EU agree to tariff deal
The euro gained on Monday following the announcement of a framework trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, the latest in a flurry of deals to avert a global trade war. Meeting in Scotland on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the deal, which will result in a 15% tariff on EU goods, half what Trump had threatened to impose from August 1. Senior U.S. and Chinese negotiators are due to meet in Stockholm on Monday with an aim to extend a trade truce and prevent steep tariff hikes. Meanwhile, investor attention is shifting towards corporate earnings and central bank meetings in the U.S. and Japan. "It could be a positive week, just purely from the fact that now we know the rules of the game, if you like," said Rodrigo Catril, senior currency strategist at National Australia Bank. "Now that there is more clarity, you would think that not only in the U.S., but around the globe, there will be a little bit more willingness to look at investment, to look at expansions, and to look at where the opportunities are," he said on a NAB podcast. The euro stood at $1.1763, up 0.2% so far in Asia. The common currency rose 0.2% to 173.78 yen. Trump said the EU plans to invest some $600 billion in the U.S. and dramatically increase its purchases of American energy and military equipment. The pact is similar to one forged with Tokyo negotiators last week that will see Japan investing some $550 billion in the U.S. and a 15% tariff imposed on its cars and other imports. The baseline 15% tariff will still be seen by many in Europe as too high, compared with Europe's initial hopes to secure a zero-for-zero tariff deal. China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable trade pact with the U.S. No breakthrough is expected in the U.S. and China talks in Stockholm, but analysts said another 90-day extension of a trade truce struck in mid-May was likely. The U.S. dollar advanced on Friday, bolstered by solid economic data that suggested the Federal Reserve could take its time in resuming interest rate cuts. Both the Fed and the Bank of Japan are expected to hold rates steady at this week's policy meetings, but traders are focusing on the subsequent comments to gauge the timing of the next moves. The dollar was little changed at 147.68 yen. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against major peers, fell 0.1% to 97.534. Sterling traded at $1.34385, down almost 0.1%. The Australian dollar fetched $0.6576, up 0.2%, while New Zealand's kiwi dollar was flat at $0.6019.
CNBC
6 minutes ago
- CNBC
Trump's tariff deal offers scant relief for Japan automakers as bigger threat looms
Japanese automakers may have sidestepped crushing U.S. tariffs, but the reprieve is offering little comfort as Chinese automakers erode their long-held global edge, complicated by persistent structural challenges at home. On July 22, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that auto tariffs on Japan-made vehicle imports to the U.S. were lowered to 15% from the current 25%. However, the light isn't at the end of the tunnel just yet, industry experts cautioned. "The trade deal struck with the U.S. is certainly a relief in that it offers some certainty that U.S. tariffs on Japan-made cars won't rise to punitive levels," said Stefan Angrick, head of Japan and Frontier market economics at Moody's Analytics. "But I'd hesitate to call it good news. A 15% U.S. import tariff is still significantly higher than where Japan started. And a 15% tariff is certainly a higher rate than most had expected." The larger challenge, analysts say, comes from China's meteoric rise in the global automotive industry. Once an important growth market for Japanese brands, China has transformed into a dominant competitor. A key challenge for Japanese producers is the intensifying competition from China, Angrick said. China's push into advanced manufacturing has transformed it into a formidable competitor just as domestic demand for Japan-made cars began to soften, he added. Seconding his view is Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars, who noted that lower-cost Chinese vehicles remain the "single biggest threat" to Japan's auto industry and economic outlook. China is the world's largest car producer and exporter, particularly of electric vehicles. The country's growing dominance in critical components and EV innovation is increasingly squeezing foreign automakers. Chinese automakers have also been making significant inroads into Southeast Asia — a region long dominated by Japanese brands like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan — making it an uphill battle for Japanese automakers to maintain their once-unassailable global market share. According to a 2025 report by PwC, the market share of Japanese auto manufacturers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore, commonly referred to as ASEAN-6, fell from 68.2% in 2023 to 63.9% in 2024. "[China autos] are expanding into markets where Japanese firms used to have a strong foothold. Thailand is one example," said the Moody's Analytics' expert. Beyond Southeast Asia, Japan's second-largest car export market is also being contested by China: Australia. A recent study commissioned by the Australian Automotive Dealer Association predicts that China is poised to surpass other countries as Australia's leading source of vehicle imports within the next decade. By 2035, 43% of all imported vehicles in Australia are expected to be manufactured in China, up from the expected 17% in 2025, the report suggested. By contrast, Japanese imports are expected to fall from 32% in 2025 to 22% by 2035. Besides external competition, Japan's automotive sector is contending with domestic economic challenges, including high inflation and weak consumer spending — similar to other developed large automakers like Toyota continue to find success domestically, Nissan is especially vulnerable due to the growing threat from China's automotive industry, Brauer explained. Earlier missteps by the management and planned plant closures are compounding its woes. Nissan plans to shut down seven of its 17 plants by fiscal 2027 and reduce its global workforce by around 15% as part of a restructuring plan. "All in all, the outlook for Japan's car industry is very challenging," Moody's Angrick said. While Toyota's global scale and diversified manufacturing footprint give it a relative advantage in maneuvering said challenges, smaller automakers such as Subaru and Mazda are under more pressure, noted Mio Kato, founder of Lightstream Research. While Subaru and Mazda do face a "significantly higher burden," they do have an advantage in having strong ties to Toyota, said Kato. Mazada, for one, shares a joint plant with Toyota, while Subaru is teaming up with Toyota to manufacture a co-developed electric vehicle slated for a 2026 debut. In the long term, Kato believes that these partnerships could deepen, potentially leading to a more formal consolidation under Toyota's umbrella. "I wouldn't expect [a consolidation] to happen on a short-term timeframe. However, it is certainly something for them to consider when you start looking towards the end of the decade, perhaps," he said. Still, analysts acknowledge that Trump's finalized tariff rate brings at least one benefit: some predictability. While it is still too soon to fully infer the long-term impact of the new trade agreement between the U.S. and Japan, having a confirmed tariff agreement will allow Japanese automakers to know their pricing and cost structures going forward, experts echoed. However, it remains unclear what tariff rates other automakers will face. "I think the absolute case for Japan is now understood relatively well, but in terms of how their competitiveness shifts, versus say, autos manufactured in Korea and exported or from Mexico and Canada, that could still impact the profit outlook for Japanese auto companies," Kato said.
