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Arena Shares Continue to Soar

Posted Jul 26th 2010 2:30PM by Melly Alazraki (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stock Picks

Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA), which soared over 10% in Monday morning trading, has set a new 52-week high of $6.75. Over the past month, Arena signed a licensing deal for its potential weight-loss drug, lorcaserin, with Japan's Eisai; released study results for the drug; and got a boost from a decision by a Food and Drug Administration panel on rival's Vivus (VVUS) drug. Arena's shares have more than doubled during that time.

The Eisai licensing deal is potentially worth about $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, the study results Arena released showed lorcaserin helped nearly half the patients lose 5% of their weight and improved their chances of keeping it off. Arena's drug did that while exhibiting a safer safety profile than either of its competitors' treatments: Vivus's Qnexa and Orexigen's (OREX) Contrave.

Continue reading Arena Shares Continue to Soar

FDA Rejection Crushes Vivus

Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:00AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Bad News, Competitive Strategy

Pharmaceutical company Vivus (VVUS) has lost more than half of its value in pre-market trading Friday. Unfortunately for VVUS, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected the company's Qnexa weight-loss drug late Thursday -- citing a lack of long-term safety data.

The news triggered a glut of downgrades and target price cuts, including downgrades from Brean Murray, Needham, JP Morgan, and Jefferies.

The drop for VVUS is understandable when considering that Qnexa is the company's main drug. There is a slight (ever-so-slight) glimmer of hope for VVUS, as the FDA is not obliged to follow the recommendations of its panels. Of course, the agency usually does follow the recommendations of its panels.

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Analyst upgrades: GM, GMCR, OREX and NHY

Posted Oct 3rd 2007 10:50AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, General Motors (GM), Ciena Corp (CIEN)

MOST NOTEWORTHY: General Motors, Green Mountain Coffee, Orexigen and Norsk Hydro were today's noteworthy upgrades:

Banc of America upgraded shares of General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) to Neutral from Sell as they believe the agreement with the United Auto Workers union offsets a worsening outlook for sales.
Piper Jaffray upgraded shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ: GMCR) to Outperform from Market Perform after a meeting with management as they believe shares offer a compelling buying opportunity at current levels based on their 2009 estimates.
JMP Securities upgraded shares of Orexigen Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OREX) to Strong Buy from Market Outperform as they believe the company's lead product candidates, Empatic and Contrave, could become front-line therapies for obesity due to improved durability of efficacy, increased safety and tolerability, and lack of addiction.
Norsk Hydro (NYSE: NHY) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Citigroup. The firm sees upside in the stock from the volume growth and further improvements in downstream operations.

OTHER UPGRADES:

Lehman upgraded Temple Inland (NYSE TIN) to Overweight from Equal Weight.
Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
HSBC upgraded ENI SpA (NYSE: E) to Overweight from Neutral.
Nollenberger raised shares of Symyx Technologies (NASDAQ: SMMX) to Buy from Neutral.