Biotech stocks perked up today emboldened by a new month and ISM data including some positive growth from China’s manufacturing sector. Apple headlines with the iPOD and Apple TV helped catalyze the NASDAQ move. Biotech went along for the ride with most ETF’s up 2%+ and our Mid-Cap Biotech Index up 2.25%.Some notable movers within the Rayno Life Science Portfolio up 2.5% overall are:
Alera (ALR) up 4.4%, Alnylam (ALNY) up 5%,Cephalon(CEPH) up 3.7%, Nektar (NKTR) up 4.4%, Micromet (MITI) up 6%, and Neogen(NEOG) up 5.5%.
Genzyme (GENZ) stock was flat at $70.50 as the Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) takeover appears stalled because of Genzyme’s management rejection of the SNY $69 offer.An analyst at Sanford Bernstein, Geoffrey Porges upped his price target to $76 saying that Genzyme has the upper hand with a likely price in the $77 range. One big issue is Genzyme’s manufacturing problems which took the stock down to the $50 level, so the bulls are saying that GENZ is well on their way to quality improvement and getting product sales and profitability back in a growth mode. The five year high on the stock is the $77 range. From Yahoo current monthly data out of 20 analysts 14 have a hold and 4 have a strong buy. For those holding the stock who want to hedge, sell the January 70 calls for $4.50.
Exelixis (EXEL) looks like a speculative buy in here at $3.30 as it is making a technical bottom,has a broad pipeline of products, strong partners and heavy insider buying. Market cap is $350M. More on EXEL later.