Hot Biotech Stocks To Watch Right Now


“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Today we look at a ‘Busted IPO’ that has not lived up to the enthusiasm that greeted its debut a few years back and has drifted down recently to ~$6.00 a share. Is there hope that this small biotech concern can turn around? We take a look below.

Company Overview:

Genocea Biosciences (NASDAQ: GNCA) is a Cambridge, MA-based clinical stage biopharma concern that develops novel vaccines and immunotherapies. The company’s vaccines leverage the body’s natural T cell (or cellular) immune response as opposed to standard vaccines, which leverage B cell (or antibody) immune response. Its lead candidate is an immunotherapy (GEN-003) for the treatment of genital herpes.

Hot Biotech Stocks To Watch Right Now: ArQule Inc.(ARQL)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Paul Ausick]

    ArQule Inc. (NASDAQ: ARQL) dropped about 23% Friday, to post a new 52-week low of $1.13 after closing at $1.47 on Thursday. The stock’s 52-week high is $2.17. Volume was about 15 times the daily average of around 150,000 shares. The biopharmaceutical company said this morning that a phase 3 trial of a cancer drug did not meet the primary endpoint of improving overall survival.

Hot Biotech Stocks To Watch Right Now: Amgen Inc.(AMGN)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Maxx Chatsko]

    Shares of Radius Health (NASDAQ:RDUS) rose over 20% Monday morning after Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) announced worrisome complications were discovered during a phase 3 trial for its osteoporosis drug candidate, Evenity. While the drug candidate met its primary endpoint in a more than 4,000-patient phase 3 study, a high rate of serious heart-related side effects were discovered. The drug was previously expected to gain marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July, but that decision will now be delayed by up to a year or more, if the drug is approved at all.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Amgen (AMGN) has tumbled 3.6% to $158.65 after beating earnings forecasts but missing on sales.

    Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) has dropped 3% to $157.51 after its earnings fell short of the Street consensus.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    After years of rising and falling in tandem, the biotech sector is all about stock picking now. Credit Suisse analyst Alethia Young and team, for instance, upgraded Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN), and added Celgene (CELG) to its Focus List today. But Amgen (AMGN) wasn’t so lucky as Young cut it to Neutral from Outperform. She explains why:

  • [By Johanna Bennett]

    Shares of Amgen (AMGN) led the drop in the S&P 500 today falling almost 6.4% to close at $168.61 after the drug maker unveiledlong-awaited data on its anti-cholesterol drug Repatha.

    Can shares of Amgen rebound from todays selloff?

    Yes, is the answer from RBC Capital Management analyst Michael Yee. He argues that the drug makers share price can grind back up if access to Repatha increases over the next few quarters. Earlier today, Amgen released data from an outcome study that missed expectations, leading some analyst to predict that health plans will continue to restrict access to the drug.


    As Yee writes:

    A number of key developments midday at the ACC conference that should shed increased confidence that Repatha reimbursement and utilization will continue to increase over time driving a new growth driver for AMGN and increased confidence in a new product cycle. If reimbursement does start to open up over next few quarters (tracking IMS scripts and other datapoints) and AMGN manages their execution on quarters/guidance – stock should recover off today’s overreaction reflecting high expectations

  • [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]

    Finally on Friday, Tiffany (TIF) reports, and Cramer is betting on positive news now that the company has an activist involved. He was also bullish on Amgen’s (AMGN) analyst meeting, saying investors should use any market weakness earlier in the week to buy.

  • [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]

    That’s why Cramer said he’ll be listening for news coming from Celgene (CEL) , Amgen (AMGN) , Allergan (AGN) , an Action Alerts PLUS holding, and Regenron (REGN) , all of which are set to present. Of the four, Cramer said he’s sticking with Allergan and Amgen.

Hot Biotech Stocks To Watch Right Now: Medivation Inc.(MDVN)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Well, it looks like Medivation (MDVN) now has five suitors after reports that Amgen (AMGN) is joining Pfizer (PFE), Sanofi (SNY), AstraZeneca (AZN) and Novartis (NVS) in considering a bid. Maxim’s Jason Kolbert and Jason McCarthy offer their thoughts:

    Medivation reports tonight at 4:30pm…

    We expect the focus to be on the recent proposals from Sanofi (SNY $38.75- NR); Pfizer (PFE $33.40 -NR), AstraZeneca (AZN $28.26-NR) and just today, Amgen (AMGN – $154.18 – NR)…


    Medivation is returning to new highs as suitors line up to make acquisition bids. In this scenario what is the right discount rate for modeling purposes?

    We believe our model for Xtandi revenues is good, therefore we review our risk rating and determine the following: 30% = $47 15% = $76 10% = $99

    With Medivation’s board having now said No to anything less than $65 per share, it suggests to us that the stability and predictability of Xtandi’s revenues is greater than we thought, the risk is lower. Our intermediate risk rating is 15% or $76 fair value.


    Shares of Medivation rose 0.3% to $59.22 today, while Pfizer gained 0.5% to $33.56, Sanofi fell 0.5% to $39.07, AstraZeneca dropped 0.6% to $39.07, Novartis declined 0.3% to $74.12, and Amgen ticked up 0.1% to $154.25.

     

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Macro considerations have continued to weigh on stocks whenever they’ve shown signs of life and consensus estimates for many of the large cap companies have been declining. With the sector’s underperformance, the delta in the average PEG ratio for biotech growth companies (excluding Medivation (MDVN)) compared to non-biotech growth companies is slightly wider than it’s been for most of the year. As such, we remain constructive on the sector. That said, while valuations are attractive on a relative basis, there remains some uncertainty for the group and we would not be surprised to see the volatility continue…

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Shares of Medivation Inc (NASDAQ: MDVN) got a boost, shooting up 24 percent to $46.35 amid word of a new report from Bloomberg, saying the company is working with bankers to defend itself against preliminary interest of a takeover. However, Reuters separately reported the company is working with JPMorgan to handle interest from other companies, but said Medivation has no interest in selling itself.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    RBC’s Simos Simeonidis and Matthew Eckler try to find the right comparison for Pfizer’s (PFE) purchase of Medivation (MDVN):


    Scott Eisen/Bloomberg News

    We were obviously wrong with our Sector Perform rating: while we knew an M&A transaction was definitely a good possibility, we just could not get to this level of valuation using a realistic Xtandi model and thus could not recommend the stock. The only way for us to get to $81.50 (or even to $60-$70/share) would have been to assign very significant value to talazoparib. And we could not do that given the amount of available clinical evidence.Medivation shareholders who held on to their shares past the $50′s, did just that, were proven right and are now rewarded for it, since they believed that someone would be willing to pay for this asset just months ahead of Phase III data. The key question is why would a company be willing to part with what they claim/think may be a multibillion dollar drug that works in multiple cancers. We believe the obvious answer is because they’re smart and understand drug development risk better than most. We’ll know in a matter of months whether Pfizer/Medivation is like Amgen (AMGN)-Onyx (carfilzomib) or not.

  • [By Monica Gerson]

    Benzinga's newsdesk monitors options activity to notice unusual patterns. These large volume (and often out of the money) trades were initially published intraday in Benzinga Professional . These trades were placed during Friday's regular session.

    PACCAR Inc (NASDAQ: PCAR) Aug16 52.5 Puts: 10000 @ ASK $1.70: 10k traded vs 335 OI: Earnings 7/26 $54.94 Ref
    Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: REGN) Jul16 345 Puts: 949 @ ASK $8.70: 1003 traded vs 55 OI: Earnings 8/2 $360.20 Ref
    NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) Fri 6/24 47.0 Puts (Wkly) Sweep: 689 @ ASK $1.12: 3758 traded vs 136 OI: Earnings 8/4 $46.69 Ref
    Medivation Inc (NASDAQ: MDVN) Sep16 55.0 Puts: 4000 @ Above Ask! $3.40: 5303 traded vs 716 OI: Earnings 8/4 $59.44 Ref
    Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ: EXPD) Aug16 47.0 Puts Sweep: 950 @ ASK $1.35: 973 traded vs 381 OI: Earnings 8/2 $48.15 Ref


    Posted-In: Huge Put PurchasesNews Options Markets

Hot Biotech Stocks To Watch Right Now: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ALNY)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY) shares shot up 53 percent to $114.87 after the company impressed investors with encouraging data from a phase 3 clinical trial. Alnylam, a company dedicated towards treating a wide range of debilitating diseases through ribonucleic acid (RNA) interference (RNAi) therapeutics, said after Tuesday's market close that a phase 3 study called APOLLO met its primary efficacy endpoint and all secondary endpoints.

  • [By Chris Dier-Scalise]

    On Thursday, the Vetr crowd downgraded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY) from 4.5 stars (Strong Buy), which was issued two days ago, to 3.5 stars (Hold). Crowd sentiment for Alnylam at the time of the downgrade was edging positive, with 66 percent of Vetr user rating bullish.

  • [By Brian Orelli]

    Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) jumped as much as 14.5% today after announcing earnings after the bell yesterday. As a development-stage biotech, it wasn’t the revenue or the earnings that caused the spike, but the progression of Allnylam’s pipeline.

  • [By Cory Renauer]

    Treating diseases that have a genetic component by altering the expression of the responsible genes is a promising new field of medicine, but it has been much less straightforward than biopharmaceutical companies had expected. Two contenders in this area, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) and Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS), saw a mix of setbacks and success in 2016.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Yesterday, after markets closed, it was announced that US Federal District Court Judge Sue Robinson ruled to issue a permanent injunction against Praluent, the PCSK9 mAb for hypercholesterolemia from partners Regeneron and Sanofi, due to infringement of patents from Amgen. The court has imposed a 30-day suspension (stay) on the injunction to allow for settlement or appeal of the District Court decision. Sanofi and Regeneron have announced their intent to appeal the ruling to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). The injunction decision is consistent with our counter-consensus published views communicated on 25 January 2016 (“Downgrade to Sell on evidence of likely infringement of Amgen’s PCSK9 patents”) and subsequently. Based on consultation with expert legal counsel, we now put >75% probability Amgen will prevail on appeal and/or Praluent is ultimately removed from the US market, and/or Amgen achieves a settlement substantially in its favor. We currently model $3.3 bn in non-risk-adjusted 2022E US revenues for Praluent, while consensus models $1.2 bn in 2022E US revenues. We reiterate our view from 25 January 2016 to preferentially own Amgen, The Medicines Company (MDCO) (Buy), and Alnylam (ALNY) (Buy) over Regeneron for exposure to PCSK9 inhibitor market dynamics as outcomes trials approach.

Hot Biotech Stocks To Watch Right Now: Biogen Idec Inc(BIIB)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Biogen (BIIB) tumbled to the bottom of the S&P 500 today after getting cut by two analysts.

    Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

    Biogen dropped 4.7% to $278.96 at 4:19 p.m. today, while the S&P 500 declined 0.2% to 2,381.38.

    Leerinks Geoffrey Porges cited the “slower than expected ramp for Spinraza” in cutting Biogen to Market Perform from Outperform, while Morgan Stanly’s Matthew Harrison wrote that his decision to cut Biogen to Market Weight from Overweight was “not a downside call, but a timing call.”


    Biogen’s market capitalization fell to $60.2 billion today from $63.2 billion yesterday. It reported net income of $3.7 billion on sales of $10.2 billion in 2016.

    Barron’s Teresa Rivas recommended buying Biogen in December after the company released positive trial data on its Alzheimer’s drug.

  • [By Todd Campbell]

    A new and highly anticipated study byCelgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG) shows that its promising multiple sclerosis drug could soon reshape the $19 billion multiple sclerosis market. On Friday, management reported that ozanimod met its primary endpoint for reducing MS relapses better than Biogen Inc.’s (NASDAQ:BIIB) Avonex, and importantly, it did so without any new safety risks.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Biogen (BIIB) has dropped 2.2% to $286.16 after getting cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Leerink, and to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Hot Biotech Stocks To Watch Right Now: ARIAD Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ARIA)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Healthcare shares gained around 0.73 percent in trading on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARIA), and VCA Inc (NASDAQ: WOOF).

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