Short Sellers Lightening Up Against Biotechs (AMGN, GILD, CELG, GENZ, BIIB)
Short sellers haven’t just eased up on betting against financial stocks. If you look at the major biotech stocks not involved in mergers you will see an across the board drop in the short interest in major biotechs. Below we have show the dates and the changes to represent each of the major names:
- Amgen (AMGN) 07/31/2008 short interest 31,659,693 down 22.96% from 07/15’s 41,097,709 shares.
- Gilead (GILD) 07/31/2008 short interest 33,141,320 down 0.06% from 7/15’s 12,632,227 shares.
- Celgene (CELG) 07/31/2008 short interest 12,301,038 down 20.38% from 7/15’s 5,642,397 shares.
- Genzyme (GENZ) 07/31/2008 short interest 6,839,521 down 8.21% from 7/15’s 3,888,041 shares.
- Biogen Idec (BIIB) 07/31/2008 short interest 7,467,029 down 2.67% from 7/15’s 4,819,980 shares.
With all the merger activity happening in the sector, you can imagine that short sellers probably wanted to avoid walking in one morning to find the stock up 25% on a merger announcement.
Jon C. Ogg
August 12, 2008
If Genentech Is Acquired, Others May Follow (DNA, AMGN, BIIB, GENZ, GILD, CELG, IMCL)
Genentech (NYSE: DNA) is just one of the next biotechs (and just large companies on discount for that matter) that is likely to disappear as far as US-based shareholders are concerned. The largest biotech company by market cap has been offered $89.00 per share in cash by parent Roche for the 44% minority stake it doesn’t own.
Genentech shares are trading over $90.00 as it is believed that if Roche wants to recapture this after a 25 year history of being public that it might have to go closer to $100.00. We’d watch other biotech Amgen (AMGN), Biogen-Idec (BIIB), Genzyme (GENZ), Gilead (GILD), Celgene (CELG), ImClone (IMCL) and others on this.
The US-biotech and other critical spaces may about to be getting much smaller.
JOn Ogg
July 21, 2008
Did Traders Get SuperGen & Celgene Wrong? (SUPG, CELG)
There are two interesting calls out this morning around SuperGen (NASDAQ: SUPG). As you will recall, it was just under pressure yesterday over Dacogen missed its primary endpoints in trials. SuperGen closed down at $1.75 yesterday on almost 2.8 million shares. SuperGen came close to a 52-week low yesterday as its year-range had been $1.66 to $6.63.
But this morning we have already seen two analyst UPGRADES in the stock. Rodman & Renshaw has raised its old “Market Perform” rating up to a higher “Market Outperform” rating. Susquehanna Financial, another boutique, has raised its prior “Neutral” rating to a higher “Positive” rating.
Keep in mind these are boutique calls and have yet to generate any trades this morning. But shares are indicated higher after a near 15% drop on the bad news. This news was what gave Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) such a large pop yesterday. Interestingly enough, Celgene shares are also popping by 1% higher in pre-market trading.
Jon C. Ogg
July 2, 2008
SuperGen’s Pain May Be Celgene’s Gain (SUPG, CELG)
SuperGen (NASDAQ: SUPG) is feeling some pain today after the company reported that its Dacogen missed its primary endpoints of showing a statistically significant advantage on median survival compared to standard care. Supergen said response rates were similar to those in other Dacogen clinical trials. Dacogen is partnered with Eisai and treats bone-marrow disease MDS, The results of this trial conducted by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer has SUPG down 13% to $1.78 in thin volume pre-market trading.
Interestingly enough, this is being tallied up as a win for Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG). Its MDS treatment is Vidaza and this is now going to be counted as less competition. Celgene is up over 3% pre-market at $65.95 (9:14 AM EST) on more than 418,000 shares in pre-market trading.
As a reminder, one-time gains at large caps from smaller company woes are frequently forgotten about. For a size comparison, the market cap for SuperGen was close to $118 million and the market cap for Celgene is over $27 Billion.
Jon Ogg
July 1, 2008
Short Interest Volume Changes: MAJOR BIOTECH (AMGN, GILD, BIIB, CELG, GENZ)
We ran a screen of the top five NASDAQ biotech stocks by market cap to look at the short interest changes from the end of May to mid-June. Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) had the largest gains in short selling by far and the others were mixed. We also screened Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD), Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG), and Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ: GENZ).
Amgen Inc. (AMGN)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 48,430,933 113.55%
05/30/2008 22,678,517 -8.48%
Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 34,676,528 6.77%
05/30/2008 32,478,444 -0.65%
Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 12,951,360 -5.98%
05/30/2008 13,775,373 -15.68%
Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 7,467,264 17.66%
05/30/2008 6,346,464 -6.51%
Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ: GENZ)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 5,751,563 1.17%
05/30/2008 5,684,945 1.12%
Jon Ogg
June 25, 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
Key Interviews & Data Out of ASCO (AVAN, PFE, CELG, IMCL, DNA)
Today we saw many stocks with key news events at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology or “ASCO” conference in Chicago. Much of the data had been signaled a couple of weeks ago ahead of the conference, but many more data points were seen today or over the weekend. CNBC’s Mike Huckman got to cover many top issues, and he ran many video interviews today from some of the key movers. Here are some of the stocks they covered with the share price reaction:
- AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAN) +28% at $17.98.
- Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) +0.56% to $61.20.
- Genentech Inc. (NYSE: DNA) +4.3% to $73.95.
- Imclone Systems Inc. (IMCL) -6.06% to $40.94.
- Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) -0.9% to $19.18.
Since CNBC had many of these interviews on an exclusive or near-exclusive basis, we’d suggest that you watch these video clips if you missed the news today as they all had market-moving data today or over the weekend.
Jon Ogg
June 2, 2008