Posts Tagged ‘pharmaceutical stocks’

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PFIN surges, LVLT trades widely, SRDX bruised

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

P & F Industries Inc. (NasdaqGM: PFIN) sprinted ahead in mid-morning trade Thursday by 38.12 percent to $2.79. Volume in this stock was40,315 shares, greater than six times the number it would normally have in a whole day. Wednesday, the Melville, N.Y. company reported revenue of $14,267,000, compared to $13,144,000 for the same period in 2009. For the three-month period ended September 30, 2010, the Company reported income after taxes from continuing operations of $632,000, compared to $56,000 during the three-month period ended September 30, 2009.

Level 3 Communications Inc. (NasdaqGS: LVLT) did brisk trade of 49,621,850 shares as the clock approached noon ET on Thursday, in contrast with full-day average volume of 29,166,400 shares. Shares in LVLT hiked 12.62 percent to $1.16. The activity follows an announcement by LVLT that it has been selected to serve as a primary content delivery network provider for Netflix, Inc. to support the company’s streaming functionality and to support storage for the entire Netflix library of content.

SurModics Inc. (NasdaqGS: SRDX) took a pasting on price Thursday near noon ET, falling 27.23 percent to $9.54. Volume for the stock was 777,146 shares, trampling over its usual daily average volume of 63,936. The Minnesota-based drug delivery company reported a loss of $21.7 million, or $1.25 per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, versus a profit of $2.7 million, or 16 cents per share, for the same period in 2009.

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Posted in Industrial Stocks | No Comments »

BNVI perks, SIRI, FSGI falter

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Bionovo Inc. (NasdaqCM: BNVI) climbed 31.68 percent in price to $1.33 near lunch time Wednesday, on volume of 1,604,200 shares, nearly nine times its daily average. The Emeryville, California-based company said Wednesday said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the clinical development plan for its lead drug candidate, Menerba, for treating hot flashes related to menopause.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NasdaqGS: SIRI) enjoyed healthy volume of 32,853,681 shares mid-Wednesday, ahead of the pace of its usual daily average volume of 74,982,700 shares. The satellite radio concern saw its stock price falter 2.01 percent to $1.46. Last week, SIRI reported third-quarter revenue of $722.5 million, up 15% from the prior-year quarter, and net income of $67.6 million, compared to a loss of $151.5 million.

First Security Group Inc. (NasdaqGS: FSGI) listed lower by noon ET Wednesday by 22.08 percent in price to $1.20. Volume in FSGI hit 71,627, more than four times its daily average. As of September 30, FSGI reported a third-quarter net loss of $30.2 million resulting in basic and diluted net loss of $1.92 per share for the quarter.

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Posted in Consumer Discretionary Stocks, Financial Stocks, Health Care Stocks | No Comments »

Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNA) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Friday, July 16th, 2010

We first featured Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARNA) on July 1, after the company announced a U.S. marketing deal for its obesity treatment, lorcaserin. Since then, shares have continued their climb, surging almost 20 percent in pre-market trading on Friday after it was announced that an FDA panel voted 9-7 against clearing a competing experimental weight loss drug developed by Vivus, Inc. for marketing in the U.S.

Panelists unanimously agreed the drug helps patients lose pounds, with most reporting more than 10 percent weight loss. But those benefits were outweighed by a slew of safety concerns that cropped up in company trials, including memory lapses, suicidal thoughts, heart palpitations and birth defects.

In contrast, Arena’s weight loss drug, lorcaserin is much safer, but hasn’t shown to shed pounds as much as Vivus’ drug, Qnexa. Lorcaserin is the most advanced candidate in Arena Pharmaceuticals’ pipeline. It is a member of a new class of selective serotonin 2C receptor agonists. The serotonin 2C receptor is expressed in the brain, including the hypothalamus, an area involved in the control of appetite and metabolism. Stimulation of this receptor, the company said, is strongly associated with feeding behavior and satiety. The FDA is expected to act on Arena’s application to begin marketing lorcaserin by October 22.

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Shares of Orexigen Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OREX), whose diet drug Contrave is also up for approval, plummeted 12.6 percent to $4.37. Many industry experts believe that while Contrave is safer than Qnexa, its safety profile may not be as strong as Arena’s lorcaserin. Contrave combines the antidepressant Wellbutrin with a sustained-release version of an opioid blocker used to treat alcohol, drug, and other addictions. The company said a late-stage trial of Contrave in patients with type 2 diabetes showed that after 56 weeks of treatment, overweight or obese patients with the disease lost significantly more weight and achieved greater improvement in glycemic control than those treated with placebo. Orexigen is up for review in January.

ARNA was recently upgraded to Overweight from Neutral by JP Morgan, with a price objective increasing to $6 from $5. Arena Pharmaceuticals, was also downgraded to Market Underperform from Market Perform by Rodman & Renshaw on Friday morning. The R&R analyst put a paltry $1 price target on the stock, citing efficacy and safety concerns that could present “regulatory challenges” for the firm’s Lorcaserin diet drug.

The market research firm Datamonitor referred to obesity in a 2009 report as the “$11 billion market that never was” as it forecast drug sales in the category to reach just $560 million in 2018, far less that the $12.2 billion market opportunity it says is there. The problem, says Datamonitor, is that “current approaches just aren’t good enough to capitalize on this opportunity.”

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Posted in Health Care Stocks, Penny Stocks | 2 Comments »

Vivus, Inc. (VVUS) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Shares of weight loss drug maker, VIVUS, Inc. (Nasdaq: VVUS) surged as much as 13 percent from Monday’s closing price, in morning trading on Tuesday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released documents that showed FDA researchers believe that use of Vivus’ diet drug Qnexa can result in “significant” weight loss. However, the agency raised questions about the drug’s safety.

Vivus shares were up about 34% to $14.25 in Tuesday’s pre-market trading session.

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In the FDA’s review of Qnexa, posted online Tuesday as part of the briefing documents for Thursday’s advisory panel, pooled data from two large phase III studies demonstrated that patients treated with low, medium and high doses Qnexa lost between 3 percent, 7 percent and 9 percent of their body weight, respectively, adjusted for the weight-loss reported for patients treated with a placebo.

Qnexa’s safety and not the drug’s ability to help patients lose weight, was the major concern entering Thursday’s meeting. In its briefing document Tuesday, FDA’s safety review highlights five areas of “particular interest” related to Qnexa — pregnancy risk, psychiatric-related adverse events, cognitive-related adverse events, metabolic acidosis and cardiovascular events. Many of these concerns, however, were expected.

Vivus, in its own briefing documents, said research showing that 68 percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight indicate a clear medical need for Qnexa.

A panel of experts is scheduled to review the drug on Thursday, with the FDA making a regulatory decision in October.

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Posted in Health Care Stocks | No Comments »

Buzz Stocks Week in Review – IDT, CWLZ, PEIX, ARNA

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Average Weekly Gain: 37.3%


Monday: Our Buzz Stock of the Day on June 28, IDT Corp. (NYSE: IDT) had a great week. IDT, which blends a strange pairing of telecom and energy had positive momentumthroughout the week. Shares began their climb on Monday, after a CNBC interview in which CEO Howard Jonas outlined the company’s shale properties and oil extraction technology. IDT’s energy business, Genie Energy, holds IDT’s interests in the American Shale Oil, LLC (AMSO), a joint oil shale research and development venture in Colorado with Total, S.A.; and in Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI), which holds an exclusive shale oil exploration and production license in the Shfela region of Israel. According to Jonas, it costs IDT Corp. $25 per-barrel to extract oil from shale rock. This figure is about $10 less than ultra-deep water fuel extraction — the kind of extraction that was being used by British Petroleum (NYSE: BP) in the Gulf of Mexico.

Up as much as 57 percent since our post.

Tuesday: On Tuesday, we featured Cowlitz Bancorp. (Pink Sheets: CWLZ) as our Buzz Stock of the Day. Cowlitz shares were up about 25 percent from Monday’s close, in morning trading on Tuesday after the company announced that it presented an updated plan to regain compliance with two Nasdaq Listing Rules with which it is not in compliance and requested a 90-day exception to the continued listing standards. Unfortunately, Cowlitz was de-listed from the Nasdaq on Thursday, July 1. Cowlitz received a  delisting determination letter from Nasdaq due to the Company not being in compliance with the minimum 500,000 publicly held shares requirement set forth in Listing Rule 5550(a)(4), on May 12.

Wednesday: Shares of Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (Nasdaq: PEIX) surged almost 60 percent on Wednesday, after the company announced that four of its subsidiaries had emerged out of bankruptcy. The plant subsidiaries, which are now owned by a newly formed holding company, will continue to be staffed, managed and operated by Pacific Ethanol under a fee and profit-sharing arrangement negotiated with the owners of the newly formed holding company. Pacific Ethanol, Inc. eliminated approximately $290 million in debt and other liabilities from its balance sheet. The bankruptcy did not affect the Company’s ownership structure and the Company continues to be owned by its existing common and preferred stockholders.
Up as much as 31 percent since our post.

Thursday: Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARNA) was up 20 percent from Wednesday’s close, in morning trading on Thursday after the company announced that Japanese drug maker, Eisai, Inc. will market Arena’s obesity treatment lorcaserin in the U.S. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is already reviewing lorcaserin, and a decision is expected on Oct. 22. The main concern with lorcaserin is that patients treated with the drug in two pivotal phase III studies didn’t lose much weight — a little more than 3% on a placebo adjusted basis. The biggest plus in lorcaserin’s corner is the drug’s safety and tolerability, which appear better than competing drugs.
Up as much as 24 percent since our post.

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Posted in Energy Stocks, Health Care Stocks, Industrial Stocks, Penny Stocks, Technology Stocks | No Comments »

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