Carl Icahn Still Active in BioHealth Stocks (ANX, FOLD, AMLN, BIIB, CYBX, EMIS, ENZN, REGN, TELK)
Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn showed his biotech and medical holdings yesterday, with the ownership filing date as of June 30, 2008. Here is a snapshot of his filed holdings:
- Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMEX: ANX)3.459 million shares, small position for Icahn
- Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FOLD) 201,940 shares, small stake and small interest
- Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) 6.787 million shares
- Applera Corp
- Biogen-Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) 9.948 million shares, which has actually been added to since that date
- Cyberonics (NASDAQ: CYBX) 2.008 million shares
- Emisphere Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: EMIS) 86,430 shares, tiny position for Icahn
- Enzon Pharma (NASDAQ: ENZN) 2.457 million shares
- Regeneron Pharma (NASDAQ: REGN) 2.508 million shares
- Telik Inc. (NASDAQ: TELK) 4.156 million shares
Jon C. Ogg
August 15, 2008
Short Sellers Lighten Up on Major Biotechs in May
We ran the short selling report that just came out on major NASDAQ biotech stocks to see what the change in short selling was. Interestingly enough, in almost all of the major and large US biotechs traded on NASDAQ.
STOCK (Ticker) MAY 30 MAY 15 CHANGE
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) 22,678,517 24,778,770 -8.48%
Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) 6,346,464 6,788,432 -6.51%
Celgene Corporation (CELG) 13,775,373 16,336,232 -15.68%
Genzyme Corporation (GENZ) 5,684,945 5,621,969 +1.12%
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) 32,478,444 32,690,603 -0.65
ImClone Systems Inc. (IMCL) 7,149,395 7,664,009 -6.71%
And below you can see the short selling changes on some of the smaller biotechs that are still rather active in daily trading volume. The results below are more mixed than they are in the major biotechs.
STOCK (Ticker) MAY 30 MAY 15 CHANGE
Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMLN) 23,855,471 23,642,854 +0.90%
Cell Genesys, Inc. (CEGE) 16,931,592 17,222,281 -1.69%
Dendreon Corporation (DNDN) 31,117,812 30,728,499 +1.27%
Illumina, Inc. (ILMN) 12,239,553 11,902,877 +2.83
Invitrogen Corporation (IVGN) 9,125,954 9,340,210 -2.29%
Medarex, Inc. (MEDX) 21,837,573 19,682,828 +10.95%
Jon C. Ogg
June 11, 2008
Amylin Results Better Than Stock Performance? (AMLN, LLY, ALKS, NVO)
Last night we saw the long-awaited results from Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN), Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) and Alkermes Inc. (NASDAQ: ALKS) announce their results from their one-year open-label clinical study for a once/week Byetta treatment in type II diabetes in patients who are taking metformin but still don’t have their blood sugar under control.
The results showed that the durable efficacy sustained a similar improvement in their glucose control compared to those receiving treatment for 30 weeks. The results also showed that patients who switched from a BYETTA injection after 30 weeks to exenatide once weekly also experienced additional improvements in A1C and fasting plasma glucose.
Byetta has been on the market since 2005 and exenatide is not yet approved.
If you have watched Amylin over the last few days, it has been a tough patch for the stock as the diabetes competitor Novo-Nordisk AS (NYSE: NVO) results were far better than Wall Street was expecting. On Friday, shares were north of $32.00 and they closed down at $26.84 yesterday.
While there has been relatively thin volume with under 30,000 shares with 1 hour and 10 minutes to the open, shares are up marginally in pre-market trading but are also already off the highs. Unfortunately with an over an hour and a low-grade reaction to what seems like good news it is hard to see any major reaction so far.
Jon Ogg
June 10, 2008
Analysts Chase Diabetes and Insulin Stocks (AMLN, NVO)
Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) is seeing some major trading volume this morning to the downside. The culprit today after prior weakness is a downgrade over at Jefferies & Co. where the firm cut its stock ratings from a “Buy” down to a much less attractive “Hold” rating.
This is the second such day consecutively that Amylin is being pounded. Friday its shares fell from almost $33.00 down to $29.93 after a study showed that Novo-Nordisk AS (NYSE: NVO) outperformed it in diabetes trial results.
Amylin has seen over 4.2 million shares trade by 11:30 AM EST and shares are down over 9% to $27.24. Its 52-week trading range is $23.75 to $53.25.
Elsewhere, Novo Nordisk AS (NYSE: NVO) shares are essentially flat today on an analyst upgrade. HSBC Securities raised a prior unattractive rating of “UNDERWEIGHT” to a “Neutral” rating. As that isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, there has been little activity there and share have risen from $64.00 in the last 5-day trading period.
Jon Ogg
June 9, 2008