Biotech and Life Science Trades Q1 2023 By the Numbers
- Leading sectors in Q1 were Tech and Semis.The SPY was up 7% YTD.
- Small caps beginning to trend up.
- Healthcare lagging XLV down 5.5% as investors rotate into growth.
Despite a strong month and a great finish to the quarter many strategists remain cautious on the market. Some are still looking for a test of the S&P October bottom (SPY) at 348 now at 409.It’s been a volatile month after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank but overall the First Quarter of 2023 was quite good if you had positions in MegaCapTech (AAPL, MSFT and GOOGL), and Semiconductors up over 29% YTD. But over the past week many of our SMID picks did well. Scroll back over this quarter and you’ll see the peak for the XBI was early February.
Here is a recap of where we are for our life science trades in 2023:
- Our niche growth play PACB was up 20.5% and is up over 41% YTD. Look at VCYT for more gains in here.
- Our value plays EVH and HOLX are doing well YTD.
- We sold the XBI at $80 and plan to get back in when biotech momentum picks up.The IBB is a safer play right now.
- Quidel/Ortho hit a bottom and we added at $85
- Our only losses since the initial trade are CYRX and GERN.
We will cover our top sector pick Large Cap Biopharmaceuticals over the weekend.
| P 1/20/23 | % Perf | 2/4/23 | 3/31/23 | ||||||||
| Company | Ticker | $ | P | % week | % Perf | P | % week | YTD % | |||
| CRSPR Therap | CRSP | 49.61 | -25 | 55.27 | 4.72 | -15 | 45.23 | 4.14 | 11.27 | ||
| or Intellia | NTLA | ||||||||||
| Cryoport | CYRX | 21.75 | -42.34 | 25.24 | 9.41 | -33 | 24 | 5.59 | 38.33 | ||
| Evolent Health | EVH | 30.83 | 13.74 | 31.96 | 2.21 | 17.91 | 32.45 | 6.05 | 15.56 | ||
| Geron | GERN | 3.19 | 9.24 | 3.22 | 3.59 | 10.27 | 2.17 | -6.87 | -10.33 | ||
| Hologic | HOLX | 79.66 | 22.41 | 84.68 | 2.28 | 30.14 | 80.7 | 1.89 | 7.87 | added | |
| Pacific Biosci | PACB | 11.29 | 55.68 | 11.58 | -1.7 | 59.67 | 11.58 | 20.5 | 41.56 | ||
| Quidel/Ortho | QDEL | 88.13 | -11.56 | 89.7 | 3.93 | -9.98 | 89.09 | 2.31 | 3.99 | added | |
| Supernus | SUPN | 40.3 | 12.3 | 41.61 | 2.29 | 15.95 | 36.23 | 1.29 | 1.57 | ||
| Veracyte | VCYT | 24.89 | 39.43 | 26.67 | 2.46 | 49.41 | 22.3 | 1.5 | -6.03 | ||
| SPDR Biotech | XBI | 86.99 | 14.75 | 90.39 | 1.12 | 19.24 | 76.21 | 2.72 | -8.18 | sold 80 | |
| wildcard | |||||||||||
| Invitae | NVTA | 2.555 | – | 2.62 | 3.15 | 0.67 | 1.35 | -4.65 | -27.42 | -16.38 | |
| ETF Comparison | 1 yr perf | ||||||||||
| iShares CoreS&P | IJR | 96.7 | 3.7 | 2.18 | -10.36 | ||||||
| iShares Russell | IWM | 178.4 | 3.85 | 2.32 | -13.09 | ||||||
| iShares BIO | IBB | 129.16 | 2.61 | -1.62 | -0.87 | ||||||
| NASDAQ-100 | QQQ | 320.93 | 3.23 | 20.52 | -11.48 | ||||||
| HealthcareSPDR | XLV | 129.46 | 1.7 | -4.7 | -5.5 | ||||||
| Energy SPDR | XLE | 82.83 | 6.34 | -5.3 | 8.36 | ||||||
| Semis | SMH | 263.19 | 3.37 | 29.69 | (2.45) | ||||||