March 3 (Reuters) - Hedge fund Starboard Value LP has taken a stake in Elanco Animal Health Inc and nominated three directors to the animal healthcare company's board, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The WSJ report did not mention the size of Starboard's stake in Elanco, which makes treatments for pets and livestock and has a market value of about $15.27 billion, as per Refinitiv data.
Elanco did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Starboard is the second activist investor to show interest in Elanco recently, after Sachem Head Capital Management LP last year made a roughly $1.2 billion bet on the company and added its head Scott Ferguson to Elanco's board.
Elanco was a division of Eli Lilly & Co until 2018, when the drugmaker spun it out in an initial public offering. Less than a year later, Elanco struck a deal to buy Bayer AG's animal health business for over $7 billion.
(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
