Update-1 10/25 at close…A Good Day on Low Volume-NASDAQ up 0.7%, S&P is up 20.56% YTD!
- Large caps mixed with IBB down a tad 0.29%;leaders are BIIB,BMY,RHHBY
- NASDAQ-100 at record high; QQQ up 0.8% to $195.64.
- Gilead Sciences (GILD) a big loser on earnings miss down 4.25%. Revenue flat.
- XBI gains 1.54% to $81.39 up 14.24% YTD with a nice October.
- Nice gains in gene therapy stocks shows speculative bent,
- Green screen in mid-caps except IMMU,NVCR.
- Illumina (ILMN) takes a 7% hit on earnings, despite beat because of consumer genomics.
disclosure long BMY,GILD,ILMN,RHHBY,XBI
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Biotech Snapshot on a Lackluster Day But Bullish Trend Intact
ALXN and BMRN beat.
NASDAQ up 0.19%
Biotech stocks failed to resume their slow upward climb with the XBI down 0.38% but holding a recent base above $80. The larger cap weighted IBB held up better up 0.32% at the $105 level. Large cap winner was Alexion (ALXN) up 7.4% to $106.63 on an earnings beat and better guidance, with revenues up 23% in Q3 to $1.263B and a GAAP diluted EPS at $2.03.. Alexion recently acquired Achillon. We recently bought ALXN at the $102 level. Other large caps winners were MRK up 1.93%, GILD up 1.09% and REGN up 1.23%, Biogen (BIIB) held its ground from big news yesterday on Alzheimer’s Disease drug down only 1.08% to $278.82.
Gene therapy stocks under pressure recently from negative sentiment were mixed but mid cap Biomarin (BMRN) gained 1.89% to $69 with a good earnings report and revenue gains of 18%.The stock has been a laggard in 2019 until October. 16 analysts have a buy or strong buy on the stock.
Recently we called for a re-balancing into healthcare and biotech stocks for underweighted portfolios Today the XLV was up 0.62% to $92.43 about a 5% pop from October 4 lows. UNH is also off October 14 lows.
One of our core holdings Illumina (ILMN) was up 1.15% but our small cap growth Veracyte (VCYT) took a 15% hit to $22 on not good enough earnings.
We will summarize some of the key takeaways from the BIO Investor Forum that focused on early stage private companies. Over 100 companies presented to investors. Some of the key issues covered in a variety of sessions were financing options considering the trade war with China ; government policy, rare and orphan drugs, molecular diagnostics and gene therapy.