Arena Hinges On New Obesity Results (ARNA)
Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA) will be holding a conference call and webcast Monday morning, March 30, 2009, at 8:30 AM EST. The topic is to be Arena’s top-line results from its BLOOM trial, the Behavioral modification and Lorcaserin for Overweight and Obesity Management). This is to be the first of two pivotal trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of lorcaserin for weight management. This is also the make-or-break event for the company according to Wall Street traders who have been gaming the stock.
This stock has been in “wait and see mode” pending the results. Shares closed up big on Friday as many are expecting positive results, although the outcome will be forthcoming shortly. Shares closed on Friday at $4.50, up $0.36 or 8.70%. Its 52-week trading range is $2.70 to $7.42 and its market cap is $338.7 million.
The call option betting in this one has been very active ahead of this result. In fact, it is possible that these results could lead to post-options trading of more than 5 million shares alone due solely to options being traded. This one trades only about 2 million shares per day.
As of last quarter it had just over $110 million in pure liquid cash and equivalents, and it carried $36.7 million in accounts payable and $71.2 million in direct long-term debt. Both of those items are before the recent $50 million raised.
Stay tuned, this could be one of the more active stocks Monday.
JON C. OGG
Those hosting the call are as follows:
Jack Lief, President and CEO,
Dominic P. Behan, Ph.D., Sr. VP and Chief Scientific Officer,
William R. Shanahan, M.D., VP and Chief Medical Officer,
Christen M. Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., VP, Clinical Development.
The conference call may be accessed by dialing 877.874.1565 for domestic callers and 719.325.4758 for international callers.
