If you’re not familiar with Israel “Izzy” Englander, you might want to be. He’s the founder of the Millennium Management hedge fund — and a billionaire, suggesting that his fund has done quite well. Indeed, the company recently sported a valuation near $100 billion, per Bloomberg.
Many investors like to watch what the most famous investors, like Izzy Englander, are buying or selling. One interesting recent move by Englander’s fund was to take a position in Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX). Millennium recently bought some 17.6 million shares of SpaceX stock, worth nearly $3 billion.
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SpaceX is not a totally surprising purchase. It does seem wildly overvalued, but it also holds a lot of promise. It leads in space launches, and its Starlink leads in satellite communications, two businesses with plenty of growth potential. It also has an artificial intelligence (AI) platform, and its second quarter featured revenue up 92% year over year to $7.8 billion.
Why buy AbbVie?
Millennium’s purchase of AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) stock is arguably more surprising. It added 840,718 shares, more than doubling the fund’s stake in AbbVie to 1.5 million shares, worth around $380 million.
AbbVie is a diversified pharmaceutical business, with products targeting chronic skin conditions, digestive issues, autoimmune diseases, age-related health concerns, and cancers. Its Skyrizi for plaque psoriasis and Rinvoq for rheumatoid arthritis, respectively, generated $9.99 billion and $4.64 billion in net sales during the first half of 2026. AbbVie is also home to Botox, generating billions in sales.
It’s also a dividend-paying stock, sporting a dividend yield of 2.7%. Better still, its payout has been growing. AbbVie pays an annual dividend of $6.83 per share, which is up from $5.92 in 2023, $4.72 in 2020, and $2.28 in 2016. That’s a 5.9% average annual growth rate over the past five years and 11.7% over the past decade.
That yield of 2.7% means Millennium’s $380 million stake will generate around $10.3 million in dividends annually — a sum that will likely grow over time.
Why think twice?
But AbbVie isn’t a no-brainer purchase right now, primarily due to its valuation. Its price-to-sales ratio, for example, is 7.2, well above the 6.3 it was at the end of March and the 5.7 level a year ago. That’s not necessarily a total deal-breaker because those numbers aren’t sky-high. (SpaceX’s price-to-sales ratio, for example, is 69.) If you plan to be a very long-term investor, you might buy a stock when it is a bit overvalued, trusting that it will grow into and exceed its current fair value.
