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