NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Activist investor Starboard

Value has liquidated its position in Pfizer, according

to a regulatory filing on Friday, ending its push for changes

aimed at boosting the drugmaker's share price.

Starboard sold roughly 8.5 million Pfizer shares during the

third quarter, according to its 13-F filing which details asset

managers' holdings in U.S. publicly traded companies at the end

of a three-month period.

At the end of the fourth quarter 2024, the hedge fund

reported owning 15.4 million Pfizer shares.

The hedge fund made a splash a year ago by announcing a

roughly $1 billion stake in the drugmaker at a time its shares

were trading at roughly half of the company's pandemic-era high.

Starboard founder Jeffrey Smith said at an industry

conference that Pfizer's ( PFE ) board needed to hold management

accountable for its underperformance.

Starboard is one of the industry's busiest activist

investors, building positions this year at travel site

TripAdvisor ( TRIP ), engineering firm Rogers and

financial automation software company BILL Holdings ( BILL )

where it quickly secured a board seat for one of its principals.

The hedge fund had approached two former Pfizer executives,

including former CEO Ian Read, to help with its campaign but the

cooperation soon fizzled.

Pfizer now has a market value of $142 billion compared with

a market value of roughly $162 billion when Starboard's Pfizer

position was revealed in October 2024.

A representative for Starboard did not respond to a request

seeking comment.

Friday's filing also showed that Starboard liquidated its

position in contract research organization Fortrea Holdings ( FTRE )

, selling 2.5 million shares during the third quarter.

The hedge fund announced its investment in Fortrea ( FTRE ), which

was spun out of Laboratory Corp in 2023, in October 2023 in a

regulatory filing. The share price has dropped nearly 50% since

Starboard's investment became known.