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Biotechs Bucking The Dendreon Trap & Curse (DNDN, VRTX, VVUS, ARNA, ALNY, AMGN, SVNT)

Administrator — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:15:48 +0000

When we issued our earnings previews for the week ahead, it looked as though Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) had a chance of really setting the trend for the entire biotech sector this week. That was before the great news from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) drove the interest for two days.

Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) said that its total revenue rose almost 200% to $82 million, but that is almost in-line and shows no upside surprise for PROVENGE sales. Despite still having some $559 million in cash and near-term liquidity, a drop of 21% to $9.17 is really not hurting the overall biotech sector anywhere close to as much as we feared it would.

VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) is weak after earnings as well as the loss was wider than expected, but it now has some of $333.4 million in cash and short-term now that it raised cash via a secondary offering. This is still in a holding pattern as the current Qnexa NDA final decision is still out to about July 17, 2012. A surprise mover to the upside is Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA) with a rally ahead of its FDA meeting for lorcaserin as a weight-loss pill. Arena shares are up 15% at $3.14 against a 52-week range of $1.23 to $3.47 and the current market cap is $571 million.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) was up so much on Monday that you would have thought it was a takeover stock rather than a cystic fibrosis drug test that caused the pop. Shares were up huge on Monday and Tuesday is seeing another day of bucking the trend as shares are up 5.3% at $61.20 at yet another 52-week high. Its market cap is now magically almost $13 billion. So far on Tuesday we have seen the following analyst rating changes: Raised to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley; Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo; and Raised to Buy at Needham.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY) is one of the upside exception today as J.P. Morgan initiated coverage with an Overweight rating. Shares are up almost 5% at $10.44 against a 52-week range of $5.88 to $13.75.

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) is a mix somewhere between biotech and pharma and it is following the defensive stocks today with a gain of 0.6% to $70.04 against a 52-week high of $72.00. That new 2.1% dividend yield is offering some cushion it appears.

Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT) shows that investors will reward emerging pharma players merely for reaching agreements with creditors, This stock is up 19% at $1.855 on only 2 million shares after it reached an agreement with some creditors to restructure a portion of its debt in a move anticipated to bring the equivalent of $44 million. Its market cap is $131 million and the $1.86 compares to a 52-week range of $1.26 to $9.14.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Biotech, Trading Alert Tagged: ALNY, AMGN, ARNA, DNDN, featured, SVNT, VRTX, VVUS

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (CHK, COP, RSH, STM, AIZ, ABX, MRO, MA, AGN, AUY, TWX, CLX, RDC, RRD, MSO, IACI, FSLR, DSX, COCO, APA, OWW, WNR, CMCSA, SVNT)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:09:45 +0000

The major US stock indexes opened lower this morning following dismal reports from Europe on manufacturing (our coverage here) and unemployment (more coverage here). The ADP report on US unemployment provided more gloomy news ahead of Friday’s official unemployment numbers (more coverage here). The US EIA petroleum inventory report helped push oil prices down (more coverage here), but the weak economic news ruled the day. Only the Nasdaq index has managed to pull into positive territory at all today, and that by less than 0.2% about an hour before closing. The US dollar index rose today, now up 0.39% at 79.130. The GSCI commodity index is up fractionally at 687.61, with commodities mostly lower on the rising dollar. Chicago wheat fell more than -4.5% to post the biggest loss of the day. WTI crude oil closed down -0.9% at $105.22/barrel, and Brent crude trades down -1.23% at $1118.19/barrel. Gold settled down -0.5% today, at $1,654.00/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 11 points to 13,268.65 (-0.08%), the NASDAQ rose more than 9 points (0.31%) to 3,059.85, and the S&P 500 fell -0.25% or more than 3 points to 1,402.31.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) cut to ‘neutral’ at R.W. Baird; ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) cut to ‘underperform’ at BofA/ML and started as ‘overweight’ at JPMorgan; RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) raised to ‘buy’ at Auriga; STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE: STM) raised to ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs and raised to ‘neutral’ at Citigroup; and Assurant Inc. (NYSE: AIZ) cut to ‘underperform’ at BofA/ML.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) is down -2.8% at $39.30 (more coverage here); Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) is down -4.4% at $28.85; Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) is down -0.8% at $452.14; Allergan Inc. (NYSE: AGN) is down -4.3% at $92.29; Yamana Gold Inc. (NYSE: AUY) is down -2.6% at $14.36; Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) is down -1.6% at $37.30; The Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) is down -3.3% at $67.74; Rowan Companies Inc. (NYSE: RDC) is up 1.3% at $34.97; R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. (NASDAQ: RRD) is down -7% at $11.79; Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (NYSE: MSO) is down -1.2% at $3.41; and IAC/InterActiveCorp. (NASDAQ: IACI) is up 3.3% at $50.34 after posting a new 52-week high of $52.77 earlier today.

Tomorrow we get earnings from First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR), Diana Shipping Inc. (NYSE: DSX), Corinthian Colleges Inc. (NASDAQ: COCO), Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA), Orbitz Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: OWW), and Western Refining Inc. (NYSE: WNR) among many others.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Chesapeake Energy is down -13.5% at $16.95 after posting a new 52-week low of $15.86 earlier today. The natural gas producer reported weak results and more troubles for CEO Aubrey McClendon. More coverage here.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is down -1% at $30.29. The cable company reported good earnings this morning. More coverage here.

Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT) is down -18.8% at $1.51. An analyst has said that the company insolvent. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Thursday. Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart, and San Francisco Fed President John Williams are speaking at a conference. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

7:30 a.m. – Challenger job cut report
8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
8:30 a.m. – Productivity and costs report
10:00 a.m. – ISM non-manufacturing index
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
4:30 p.m. – Federal Reserve balance sheet and money supply

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: ABX, AGN, AIZ, APA, AUY, CHK, CLX, CMCSA, COCO, COP, DSX, FSLR, IACI, MA, MRO, MSO, OWW, RDC, RRD, RSH, STM, SVNT, TWX, WNR

Second Look: Is There Any Real Value Left In Savient? (SVNT, DNDN, SVNT)

Administrator — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:31:05 +0000

Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT) already had problems before a fund called Tang Capital accused it of being insolvent this week. Over the last year this stock has fallen down steadily just like its stock chart was a staircase… Down, level, down again, level, down again, and so on. A year ago Savient’s share price was $11.00 and it sits at under $2.00 today.

Tang Capital is listed as a creditor and owns some $38.9 million in notes and the firm is opposed to the company supporting a new gout treatment called Krystexxa, which the activist creditor calls a total failure. There is also the generic and branded Oxandrin that includes doses of the anabolic steroid oxandrolone.

We have highlighted the woes here before, most recently the CEO departure to Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN). At that time shares were at $2.22 in early February.

The reason that Savient is still surviving is because back in 2009 it priced a 4.4 million share secondary offering at $13.29 per share in a sale through J.P. Morgan and Wedbush Morgan that raised about $57 million before fees.

Savient’s filing claims that Tang’s allegations are without merit. The December 30, 2011 balance sheet lists roughly $169.7 million in cash and short-term securities, but there is also more than $175 million in long-term debt. Yahoo! Finance showed that the net tangible assets as being negative at -$8.41 million as of the end of 2011. The company is burning through cash at more than $10 million per month according to the listed changes in the last two available quarters.

Who and what Tang’s ambition happens to be is unknown because they are a creditor. The issue is that whether you have high hopes for biotech or not, the balance sheet is now inverted here and that is based on data one quarter back. The company has an active $100 million shelf registration which was filed almost a month ago, but how the company can raise that much capital remains a severe mystery if you look at the issues.

Savient has a market capitalization rate of only $111 million after another 15% drop today to $1.575 per share. This was a $2.37 stock on Monday and the 52-week range is now $1.42 to $11.33.

Thomson Reuters expects only $32.2 million in 2012 revenues and almost $62 million in 2012 revenues, with losses expected in both years.

Whether or not the company can survive or not is still a matter of opinion. What is certain is that this fails probably every bit of suitability requirements for widows and orphans funds.

The company’s partnership page lists:

We have exclusively licensed worldwide rights to the technology related to KRYSTEXXA® and its uses from Duke University and Mountain View Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Duke University developed the recombinant uricase enzyme and Mountain View developed the PEGylation technology used in the manufacture of KRYSTEXXA. Mountain View and Duke have been granted U.S. and foreign patents disclosing and claiming the licensed technology and, in addition, Savient owns or co-owns U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications, which collectively form a broad portfolio of patents covering the composition, manufacture and methods of use and administration of KRYSTEXXA.

We depend on third parties to manufacture pegloticase and have entered into commercial supply agreements with third-party manufacturers.

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE: WPI) serves as the exclusive U.S. distributor of our authorized generic version of oxandrolone tablets, an Oxandrin® brand equivalent product that we supply to Watson Pharma.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Activist Investor, Bankruptcy, Biotech, Drug companies, Shareholder Issues Tagged: DNDN, SVNT, WPI

Mid-Afternoon Movers (MDVN, LIVE, RSYS, SVNT, VRNG)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:10:00 +0000

At mid-afternoon, we’ve seen some changes among today’s big movers. On the plus side are Medivation Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN, Live Deal Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVE, RadiSys Corp. (NASDAQ: RSYS), Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT), and Vringo Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNG).

Medivation has jumped nearly 25% to $69.12 after posting a new 52-week high of $70.87 earlier today. The development stage drug maker has reported highly positive results on a test of its late-stage prostate cancer treatment. We have more coverage here.

Live Deal is up nearly 25% at $5.47. The customer acquisition company got a capital infusion on Monday from the private equity division of Isaac Organization.

RadiSys is up nearly 22% at $7.35 in a 52-week range of $4.01-$9.38. The company has announced a ruggedized version of a Core processor from Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC).

Savient is down more than 12% at $2.22. The drug company lost its CEO, who has joined Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) as its new CEO.

Vringo is down nearly -6% at $1.32. The social media company is giving back some of the 30% gain it enjoyed yesterday.

The DJIA is up 1% at around 12,760, the S&P 500 is up 1.19% at about 1,328, and the Nasdaq Composite is up 1.33% at about 2,851.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire Tagged: LIVE, MDVN, RSYS, SVNT, VRNG

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AMZN, BRK-A, BRK-B, CMCSA, FTO, POT, SVNT, STX, THC)

Administrator — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:15:02 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Monday morning.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) Raised to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Frontier Oil Corp. (NYSE: FTO) Raised to Equal-Weight at Barclays.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) Raised to Buy at Gleacher & Co.; Maintained Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT) Maintained Underperform at BofA/ML.
Seagate Technology PLC (NYSE: STX) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: THC) Raised to Buy at UBS.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, dividend trends, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AMZN, BRK-A, BRK-B, CMCSA, FTO, POT, STX, SVNT, THC

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (NLY, AAPL, BX, BG, C, CMA, CREE, CY, DRYS, ADM, MCD, MRK, PFE, SVNT, X)

Administrator — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:19:18 +0000

These are some of this Wednesday’s top analyst calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms.

Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE: NLY) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Raised target to $438 at Kaufman Bros; Reiterated Buy with $375 target at Needham; Oppenheimer raised target to $425.
The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) Cut estimates for 2011 and 2012 at BofA/ML.
Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA) Raised to Hold at Citigroup.
Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) Kept at Hold but lowered target to $52 at Kaufman Bros.
Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: CY) Raised to Buy at UBS.
DryShips, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) Started as Neutral at Stern Agee.
Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Added to Focus List at Credit Suisse.
Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.
United States Steel Corp oration (NYSE: X) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AAPL, ADM, BG, BX, C, CMA, CREE, CY, DRYS, MCD, MRK, NLY, PFE, SVNT, X

Top Active Trader Stock Alerts (AU, ARNA, BZH, HRBR, LVLT, NBIX, NOVL, SVNT, UTSI, RDWR)

Administrator — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:04:03 +0000

There are many active stocks this morning with big price changes for active traders and day traders to look over. We are monitoring shares of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU), Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA), Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH), Harbor BioSciences, Inc (NASDAQ: HRBR), Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT), Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBIX), Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL), Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT), and UTStarcom, Inc. (NASDAQ: UTSI).

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU) was down 4.5% at $44.62 on over 500,000 shares after a mine accident closed down a mine after a worker’s death.

Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA) is down after its weight loss drug candidate is in trouble. Shares are down 6.8% at $3.85 on over 200,000 shares.

Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH) is down after saying that it might miss order expectations this quarter and cut estimates for the year on land costs. Shares are down 4.6% at $4.33 on thin volume.

Harbor BioSciences, Inc (NASDAQ: HRBR) is soaring by 60% at $0.38 after its prostate cancer drug shows partial overall response.

Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) is recovering after pricing its $175 million 6.5% Convertible Senior Notes due 2016 with an initial conversion price of $1.235 per share. Shares were hit yesterday but the stock is up 4.25 at $0.99 on recovery mode after an obvious Over-Sale yesterday.

Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBIX) is down after its major depressive disorder drug candidate was ineffective. Shares were down by 9.6% at $5.65 on more than 300,000 shares last night and shares are trading around $5.67 on last look this morning.

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is up on word that it may sell the company in two parts; sshares are up 6% around $5.90 on close to 1 million shares.

Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT) is soaring after the FDA finally approvedits gout drug, about a year or two later than many expected. Shares are up 27% at $18.81 on more than 1 million shares.

UTStarcom, Inc. (NASDAQ: UTSI) is up 7.25% at $2.07 after the company announced a contract from Jinan, Shandong Province to accelerate its network transformation and integration.

Radware Ltd. (NASDAQ: RDWR) was yesterday’s big rumor move higher but shares are down slightly this morning.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert Tagged: ARNA, AU, BZH, HRBR, LVLT, NBIX, NOVL, RDWR, SVNT, UTSI

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (APD, AKAM, FSLR, MA, MHP, MCO, NFLX, SVNT, UA, V)

247wallst — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:56:42 +0000

These are this Friday’s top ten analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls:

Air Products & Chemicals (NYSE: APD) Started as Outperform at William Blair.
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Raised to Buy at Collins Stewart.
Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MHP) Started as Buy at BofA Merrill Lynch.
Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) Started as Buy at BofA Merrill Lynch.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Savient Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SVNT) Started as Overweight at JPMOrgan.
Under Armour (NYSE: UA) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert Tagged: AKAM, APD, FSLR, MA, MCO, MHP, NFLX, SVNT, UA, V

Top Day Trader Alerts (ACOR, AVNR, INFY, SVNT, SPPI, TSM)

247wallst — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:57:40 +0000

These are this Friday morning’s top day trader and active trader alert stocks. We have provided a link through to VSInvestor.com with more detailed price and volume analysis on each stock below:

Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACOR) down on FDA link that made its data public.

AVANIR Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVNR) is the top gainer so far as Zenvia data showed positive results at higher doses.

Infosys Technologies Limited (NASDAQ: INFY) beat earnings, but shares are down about 3%.

Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT) is trading up over 4% after a secondary offering, and an upgrade probably helped here.

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPPI) is down sharply on complete response letter from FDA for FUSILEV in advanced metastatic colorectal cancer going against it.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (NYSE: TSM) is up marginally on over 1 million shares a sales drop still met plan.

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates each morning on analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s and secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG
October 9, 2009

Posted in After-Hours Activity, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert Tagged: ACOR, AVNR, INFY, SPPI, SVNT, TSM

More Secondaries Hitting the Market (LAD, PZG, SVNT, GOL)

247wallst — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:26:11 +0000

We have seen at least four different secondary offerings this morning, and there are some others that are pending to be priced for trading today. The offerings are from Lithia Motors Inc. (NYSE: LAD), Paramount Gold & Silver (AMEX: PZG), Savient Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SVNT), and GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA (NYSE: GOL). Details on pricing and reactions are available below.

Lithia Motors Inc. (NYSE: LAD) priced a 4 million share secondary offering of common stock at $10.00 through J.P. Morgan and Stephens. Shares closed at $10.88 yesterday and the 52-week high is $16.49.

Paramount Gold & Silver (AMEX: PZG) is taking advantage of higher gold prices. The company priced a 16 million shares secondary offering of common stock at $1.25 through Dahlman Rose and Blackmont Capital.

Savient Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SVNT) priced a 4.4 million share secondary offering of common stock at $13.29 per share in a sale through J.P. Morgan and Wedbush Morgan. The deal size was increased from 4M shares on what was believed to be higher demand, and this one closed at $13.29 yesterday.

GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA (NYSE: GOL) raised roughly $590 million in a GDR offering of 62.19 million shares at BRL 16.50 per share through Itau BBA, Morgan Stanley, Bradesco BBI, BB Investimentos, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

JON C. OGG
October 9, 2009

Posted in Secondary Offering Tagged: GOL, LAD, PZG, SVNT