Jack Schuler is the former President/COO of Abbott Laboratories and a biotech entrepreneur with a penchant for investing in medical stocks both large and small. On Aug. 31, Schuler filed a 13D/A disclosing the purchase of 365,291 shares of the bioscience company Yield10 (YTEN) @ 4.25. At that price, YTEN had a market cap of just $13.6 million. Insider Jack Schuler bought the shares in a private placement and public offering that netted the company about $4.8M. Schuler controlled 1,634,063 shares — or about 51% of the company — after the purchases.
The transactions were very well-timed.
Because on Thursday, H.C. Wainwright analyst Amit Dayal initiated coverage of Yield10 Bioscience with a Buy rating and $25 price target. YTEN shares surged as high as $8.45 — up 94% — before closing at $6.67.
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc., formerly Metabolix, Inc. is focused on developing crop innovations for sustainable global food security. The company’s technologies improve crop yield for food and feed crops. YTEN is developing ways to improve fundamental elements of plant photosynthetic efficiency by directing more carbon to seed production. The company is advancing several yield traits it has developed in crops, such as Camelina, canola, soybean and corn. The plan is to partner with major agricultural companies to drive new traits into development for canola, soybean, corn and other commercial crops.
H.C. Wainwright initiated coverage of Yield10 with a $25 target — 350% above the stock’s close on Sept. 11.
According to Dayal, the market is not assigning any meaningful value to the expected increase in Camelina production acreage from 50 acres in 2020 to 50,000 acres in 2021. Also, investors are undervaluing the company’s fifteen seed and yield traits at various stages of development and approvals on three non-regulated traits. The analyst believes Yield10 is on the cusp of generating “meaningful” revenue beginning in 2021 from product sales and potential licensing deals. On Sept. 9, the company announced it would participate at the H.C. Wainwright 22nd Annual global Investment Conference on September 14-16.
While YTEN stock is up nearly 60% in the two weeks since insider Jack Schuler significantly increased his stake in the company, the investor is no Johnny-come-lately to the company. He first bought shares of Yield10, then called Metabolix, in Sept. of 2011 when the company went by the name Metabolix.
YTEN insider Jack Schuler is a significant owner of other publicly traded companies. The largest is Quidel Corp (QDEL), a $691M position. Schuler was a director of the diagnostic testing company for 14 years, retiring in June.
Jack W. Shuler’s top holdings.
| Stock | Shares Held | Market Value | Source | Source Date |
| Quidel Corp. (QDEL) | 4,292,374 | 691,072,214 | 13D | 5/20/19 |
| Accelerate Diagnostics Corp (AXDX) | 17,079,791 | 178,313,018 | 13D | 3/27/18 |
| Aspira Womens Health Inc (VRML) | 25,751,787 | 73,907,628 | 13D | 7/1/20 |
| Soleno Therapeutics Inc (SLNO) | 12,644,972 | 30,095,033 | 13D | 3/21/19 |
| Yield10 Bioscience Inc (YTEN) | 793,635 | 5,555,445 | 13D | 8/26/20 |
| Biolase Inc (BIOL) | 6,507,486 | 1,952,246 | 13D | 6/10/20 |
| Neos Therapeutics Inc (NEOS) | 2,338,671 | 1,590,296 | 13G | 12/31/17 |
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