March has been a month associated with bad news. Remember Julius Caesar and the ides of March? At least Julius had the opportunity to enjoy a couple of good weeks before disaster struck.
Bad news came early in the month for Juno Therapeutics (NASDAQ:JUNO) and PTC Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTCT). Both companies announced major pipeline setbacks. What’s next for these beleaguered biotechs?
Image source: Getty Images.
The CAR-T pipeline keeps rolling for Juno
Juno’s discontinuation of JCAR015 was nearly anticlimactic. The company slipped the news that it wouldn’t advance the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) drug in its fourth-quarter financial update. It was bad news for Juno, but not surprising news.
The biotech had placed the phase 2 ROCKET clinical trial evaluatingJCAR015 on hold in November. Two patients in the study taking the experimental drug died after suffering from swelling in the brain.
Top 10 Biotech Stocks To Buy Right Now: ArQule Inc.(ARQL)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Joseph Griffin]
ArQule (NASDAQ:ARQL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $6.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $5.00. Needham & Company LLC’s price target suggests a potential upside of 134.38% from the company’s previous close.
- [By Stephan Byrd]
ArQule, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQL) Director Ronald M. Lindsay acquired 23,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 10th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $2.67 per share, for a total transaction of $63,813.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 43,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $117,213. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.
- [By Ethan Ryder]
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Top 10 Biotech Stocks To Buy Right Now: Amgen Inc.(AMGN)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Keith Speights]
The way to determine where a puck is going to be requires evaluating its direction and speed. I used a similar approach to identify five stocks with fast-growing dividends: Boeing (NYSE:BA), Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), CVS Health (NYSE:CVS), Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN), and AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV). Here’s why these stocks could be great picks for dividend-seeking investors.
- [By Chris Lange]
And Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) will report its most recent quarterly results late Thursday. The consensus forecast is $3.24 in EPS and $5.43 billion in revenue. Shares closed on Friday at $171.56, in a 52-week range of $152.16 to $201.23. The consensus price target is $195.14.
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This week we get our first look at quarterly numbers from major drug and biotech giants such as AbbVie (ABBV) , Amgen (AMGN) , Biogen (BIIB) , Biomarin Pharmaceuticals (BMRN) and Action Alerts PLUS holding Eli Lilly (LLY) , which all provide the market a glimpse of how the first quarter was for the industry over the next few days,” according to Real Money Pro columnist Bret Jensen.
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For example, if you buy 100 shares of theNasdaq100ETF(NYSE: QQQ), you’re theoretically buying 11.9 shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)… 7.7 shares of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB)… 1.8 shares ofAmgen(NASDAQ: AMGN)… 2.6 shares of Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA)… and even smaller amounts of about 95 different companies.
Top 10 Biotech Stocks To Buy Right Now: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ALNY)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Keith Speights]
I wrote three months ago that I viewed Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) stock as a pretty good pick — but with a couple of qualifications. First, I didn’t think that the biotech would generate returns in 2018 nearly as great as it did last year. Second, I thought that there were even better stocks to buy than Alnylam.
- [By Brian Orelli]
The delay in an FDA decision for Tegsedi puts it behind competitor Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY), which expects to hear from the FDA by Aug. 11 for its hATTR drug patisiran. But Sarah Boyce, the president at Akcea Therapeutics, doesn’t think a few months will really matter: “We don’t really feel that’s going to have any impact and the drugs will be close enough together from a launch perspective. So not really [going] to make any adjustments, and we’re very well prepared to be ready to launch following approval.”
- [By Brian Orelli]
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) released first-quarter results last week, but all eyes were looking forward as the company waits for a potential approval of its hereditary TTR amyloidosis (ATTR) drug, patisiran.
Top 10 Biotech Stocks To Buy Right Now: Biogen Idec Inc(BIIB)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Brian Orelli]
Data source: Ionis Pharmaceuticals.
What happened with Ionis Pharmaceuticals this quarter?
Revenue increased thanks to $41 million in royalties from Biogen’s (NASDAQ:BIIB) sales of Spinraza, up from just $5 million in the year-ago quarter. Because the tiered royalty rates reset each year, the royalties as a percentage of sales will end up being higher in the quarters to come this year. Despite the higher revenue, earnings turned negative on a GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) basis: Ionis and Akcea Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKCA) increased spending in preparation for the launch of Tegsedi for hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (hATTR), and Waylivra for familial chylomicronemia syndrome, a rare disease that causes the buildup of lipids. Ionis is still the majority owner of Akcea, so its financials are incorporated into Ionis’ financials. The Food and Drug Administration pushed back its goal for making a decision on the marketing application for Tegsedi (the new brand name for inotersen) to Oct. 6, 2018. Ionis provided additional data analysis that the FDA needs additional time to review. In April, Ionis signed another deal with Biogen to develop antisense drugs for neurological disorders. In the deal, Ionis gets $1 billion up front, including an equity investment, in exchange for Biogen having first choice of neurology targets on which to exclusively collaborate with Ionis. Biogen is paying for everything beyond the initial discovery stage, with Ionis eligible for royalties and milestone payments as the drugs advance.
Image source: Getty Images.
- [By Chris Lange]
Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) is expected to report its first-quarter results early on Tuesday. The consensus forecast calls for $5.92 in earnings per share (EPS) and revenue of $3.15 billion. Shares of Biogen ended last week at $263.02. The consensus analyst price target is all the way up at $371.97. The 52-week trading range is $244.28 to $370.57.
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What should investors do with shares of Celgene (CELG) , Biogen Idec (BIIB) , Gilead Science (GILD) and Regeneron (REGN) ? Cramer once proclaimed these high-fliers his “four horsemen of biotech,” but lately they’ve lost all of their traction, with Celgene down 21%, Biogen off 14%, Gilead down 9% and Regeneron off 23% so far this year.
- [By Joseph Griffin]
Here are some of the news stories that may have effected Accern’s analysis:
Get Biogen alerts:
Biogen (BIIB) Expected to Post Quarterly Sales of $3.24 Billion (americanbankingnews.com) Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB): Does The Earnings Decline Make It An Underperformer? (finance.yahoo.com) 5 Trade Ideas For Monday: AMTD, BIIB, DEO, FITB, TECK (investing.com) $5.29 EPS Expected for Biogen (BIIB) This Quarter (americanbankingnews.com) Biogen (BIIB) Upgraded by ValuEngine to “Hold” (americanbankingnews.com)
Shares of Biogen traded up $5.45, reaching $281.51, during midday trading on Wednesday, according to MarketBeat Ratings. 1,514,169 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,729,786. Biogen has a 52-week low of $276.94 and a 52-week high of $281.57. The firm has a market cap of $59.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.91, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 2.95 and a current ratio of 3.23.
