A Great Quarter for Many Tools and Diagnostic Stocks

The tools and diagnostics sector usually underperforms biopharmaceuticals because the companies are more tethered to deal news and fundamentals. We will review our focus stocks below as Q1 earnings come in. NASDAQ is down about 3% over the last 5 trading days so many of the stronger performers are off their highs.

Here are the big winners:

  • CardioVascular Systems(CSII) up 35%
  • Alere (ALR) up 35%
  • Thermofisher (TMO) up 23%
  • Abaxis (ABAX) up 19.6%

Response Genetics (RGDX) was up 50% but we did not include it as  a “big winner” because of the stock volatility. Two of our new picks are GenomicHealth (GHDX) and Hologic (HOLX). Quarter losers were Exact Sciences (EXAS) and Sequenom (SQNM).

Note that over a three year period, five of our picks were acquired at a premium over the price recommendation.

2010-2013 Original Price Price % Price Price % RET Price %RET
Recomm Dec’10 Ret 10/2/12 1/2/13 1 yr 4/21/13 YTD
Abaxis ABAX 2/2/09 15 26.9 79 37.9 37.8 36.7 45 19.6
CardioV.Sys. CSII 11/5/10 7.15 11.7 63 11.45 13 29.7 17.57 35
Celera CRA 3/28/10 7 6.3 18 acquired
Cepheid CPHD 10/23/12 31.4 NEW 35.5 13 38 7
Exact Sci EXAS 12/10/10 5.6 5.98 6.8 11.36 11 36 9.23 -16
GenomicH GHDX 2/26/13 28.5 NEW 27.24 6.3 29.76 9.25
GenProbe GPRO 2/2/09 45 58.4 30 82.55 acquired
Hologic HOLX 4/9/13 21.6 NEW 20 21.27 new
Illumina ILMN 2/2/09 29 63.3 118 51.2 55.4 81.8 56.09 2.7
Immucor BLUD 4/5/10 20 19.8 0 acquired
Alere ALR 2/2/09 25 36.6 46 19.64 19 -18 25.63 35
MicroFluidics MFLU 7/6/10 0.77 1.34 74 acquired
NeoGen NEOG 7/2/10 26 41 58 42.8 45.6 48.8 49.85 9.3
Qiagen QGEN 3/15/10 21.5 19.6 -9 19 18.8 36 21 9.5
Quidel QDEL 6/16/10 12.4 14.5 16 18.65 19.9 31.3 21.33 7.2
ResponseG RGDX 2/3/12 1.5 1.3 1.4 -13 1.21 50
Sequenom SQNM 11/18/09 3.75 8.03 114 3.5 4.93 10.8 3.97 -20
SeraCare SRLS 11/18/09 2.75 4.75 73 acquired
ThermoFish TMO 7/25/12 53.5 NEW 59.4 65 44.5 80 23

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