Update-3. Red screen day, post after close, macro intervening again. BMY/CELG delayed on Otezla divestiture.
Update -2 …Week Ending 6/21-Biotech stocks up for the week but momentum easing.
- XBI up 1.2% to $87.26, off Wednesday highs.
- IBB up .2.2% to $109.45
- QQQ up 1.6% to $188.62.
- Gene Therapy stocks looking good on Friday and over 52 wk: BOLD,MGTX, QURE, VYGR.
- Mid-cap moves this week:INCY up 2.46%, RGEN up 5.6%,
- Large caps near 52 week highs:ALXN CELG, RHHBY, MRK. ALXN up 7.7% for week.
- Many small cap movers on Friday shows traders bullish: CLVS,EDIT, EPZM, etc.
=============
Update-1 6/18 at close : Continuation of M&A rally with help from G-20 Meeting Deal expectations.
- XBI up 1.89%, IBB up 1.38%,NAZ up 1.39%. Is this biotech recovery rally that strong or was today just a general risk-on move based on China trade and FED stimulus expectations.
- Look for stocks in your portfolio that underperformed today: BLUE QURE.
- Large caps biotechs at 52 week highs: CELG (BMY) MRK RHHBY.
- ILMN down 0.93% on delay of PACB acquisition from UK concerns.
- Rayno January picks: AMRN up 3.41%, GNMK up 0.88%, TDOC up 1.48%.
M&A Makes A Rally Day with Array Buyout by Pfizer
- Rally underway today 6/11 update at close.
You can always count on a major deal to wake up biotech stocks and the acquisition of Array BioPharma (ARRY) by Pfizer.Inc.(PFE) was timely because quite frankly the biopharma sector has been in a funk (XBI) over the past two months off April 2019 highs and down over 10% over 12 months.The large cap biopharma sector (IBB) has done a little better but is still down 6.6% over 12 mos.
Array (ARRY) has been mentioned as an acquisition target in the past because of their broad pipeline in cancer and targeted small molecule drugs.Two products have been approved with BRAF and MEK targets with several other later stage compounds already partnered with major drug companies.ARRY was up47% today to $46.44 and last December the stock was in the $14 range! Pfizer (PFE) debt/equity ratio is now 0.77 after this $11B deal.
As we have said many times in previous posts the mid-cap biopharma sector is the most likely place to expect acquisition targets because of maturing “de-risked” drug pipelines in Phase 2 or 3 with market caps in the $8-15B range. LOXO Oncology and Tesaro are two mid-caps that were presviouslf acquired.
Today the following Mid-cap stocks on our Watch List were “on fire”:
- AGIO BMRN BPMC ICPT IMMU INCY PTLA SGEN SRPT
The following gene therapy stocks (>$2B market cap) were ~5% leaders in a sector that was all green.Here is a previous Scoreboard post on gene therapy stocks.
- BLUE BOLD CRSP FOLD NTLA QURE VYGR
We will update specific biotech stock performance at the end of trading tomorrow, Remember we need a few days follow through to break the bearish May trend.
Disclosure long CRSP XBI