Best Biotech Stocks To Own For 2019

tags:AMGN,BIIB,ARQL,ALNY,

April's been a month of biotech bloodbaths. In a 15-day span, Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY), Prothena Corporation PLC (NASDAQ:PRTA), and Celldex Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX) have all reported clinical trial failures that have hammered their stock prices.

While there's no use crying over spilled milk, there were some important lessons to be learned. Here are a couple of important takeaways that could save you a bundle down the road.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Comparison shop

Incyte and Prothena's meltdowns occurred in different fields of medicine, but both companies could have saved a bundle by generating some comparison data before investing heavily into a slate of big phase 3 trials. In June 2016, Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) started the first trial to see if its lead cancer therapy, Keytruda, could get a boost from Incyte's epacadostat by comparing melanoma patients receiving the combo against those given Keytruda plus a placebo. Rather than wait for this study to complete before forging ahead, the partners enrolled patients with four more tumor types into similar phase 3 studies last January.

Best Biotech Stocks To Own For 2019: Amgen Inc.(AMGN)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Cory Renauer]

  The market for complex therapies that train living cells to attack cancer is taking baby steps, but there's still a lot of enthusiasm for experimental drugs coming through the pipeline from bluebird bio (NASDAQ:BLUE) and it's big biotech partner Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG). That enthusiasm fell a notch after Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) released exciting data from a handful of patients that suggests it's found a much easier way to achieve the same goal. 

• [By Cory Renauer]

  There's a lot for investors to like about Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB). Both of these biotech stocks have produced tremendous returns over the past couple of decades, and the businesses they represent still generate enormous profits. 

• [By Cory Renauer]

  The recent surge in biotech investment is terrific for the pace of innovation, but that capital isn't heading toward the industry's bigger older players, a couple of which are looking mighty underappreciated right now. Perhaps the investment community's intense focus on start-ups has created interesting opportunities to snap up shares of these two overlooked biotechs at a very nice price.

  Company (Symbol) Forward P/E Ratio Free Cash Flow, Past 12 Months Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Short-Term Investments as of March 31 AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) 12.2 $10.0 billion $9.5 billion Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) 14.2 $10.9 billion $32.2 billion

  Data source: Yahoo! Finance.

• [By Chris Lange]

  Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) shares made a slight gain on Tuesday after it was announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its treatment of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis in men and women at high risk of fracture. Specifically, the agency approved Prolia (denosumab), driven by positive late-stage results.

• [By Keith Speights]

  If you're looking to invest in successful big biotechs, two of the biggest are Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG). Over the past 10 years, both stocks have more than tripled.  

• [By Chris Lange]

  Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) saw its short interest drop to 9.87 million shares from the previous level of 10.18 million. Shares were last seen trading at $185.79, in a 52-week range of $163.31 to $210.19.

Best Biotech Stocks To Own For 2019: Biogen Idec Inc(BIIB)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Chris Lange]

  The S&P 500 stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close was Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) which traded up about 19% at $355.17. The stock's 52-week range is $249.17 to $370.57. Volume was over 12 million compared to the daily average volume of 1.6 million.

• [By Chris Lange]

  Short interest in Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) decreased to 3.35 million shares from the previous 4.00 million. The stock recently traded at $342.33, within a 52-week range of $249.17 to $388.67.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Traders bought shares of Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB) on weakness during trading on Tuesday. $119.44 million flowed into the stock on the tick-up and $86.88 million flowed out of the stock on the tick-down, for a money net flow of $32.56 million into the stock. Of all companies tracked, Biogen had the 26th highest net in-flow for the day. Biogen traded down ($7.15) for the day and closed at $345.41

• [By George Budwell]

  Not surprisingly, biotech titans Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG) and Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) are among the leaders in this ongoing biopharma revolution. So, with that theme in mind, let's attempt to gauge which of these top biotechs is the more attractive long-term buy for investors right now.

• [By Keith Speights]

  This has been a bad year for Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) so far -- the biotech's stock has dropped more than 10% since it began. But 2018 has been horrible for Acadia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD), which has seen its share price plunge nearly 40%.

Best Biotech Stocks To Own For 2019: ArQule Inc.(ARQL)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Money Morning Staff Reports]

  But Blink and our other penny stocks to watch are unlikely to continue to lock in such spectacular gains in June. After looking at our 10 top penny stocks to watch this month, we'll show you a small-cap stock with great profit potential in its future…

  Penny Stock Current Share Price Law Month's Gain  Blink Charging Co. (Nasdaq: BLNK) $7.07 439.85% Senes Tech Inc. (Nasdaq: SNES) $1.27 175.40% Vivis Inc. (Nasdaq: VVUS) $0.77 150.41% Adomani Inc. (Nasdaq: ADOM) $1.49 137.68% NF Energy Saving Co. (Nasdaq: NFEC) $2.34 134.88% Vaalco Energy Inc. (NYSE: EGY) $2.15 109.06% Heat Biologics Inc. (Nasdaq: HTBX) $2.35 99.12% ArQule Inc. (Nasdaq: ARQL) $4.88 90.74% LiqTech International Inc. (NYSE: LIQT) $0.66 85.60% Transenterix Inc. (NYSE: TRXC) $3.46 77.84%

  While last month's gains are tremendous, they also illustrate the inherent dangers that come with investing in penny stocks.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  ValuEngine downgraded shares of ArQule (NASDAQ:ARQL) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday.

  Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on ARQL. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of ArQule from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $2.75 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 8th. B. Riley set a $4.00 target price on shares of ArQule and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, March 26th. Roth Capital raised their target price on shares of ArQule from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 17th. BidaskClub upgraded shares of ArQule from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Saturday, May 19th. Finally, Leerink Swann upgraded shares of ArQule from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, April 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. The company has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $5.35.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on ArQule (ARQL)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Best Biotech Stocks To Own For 2019: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ALNY)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Orelli]

  Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) updated investors last month on how the launch of Onpattro, its first drug that was approved to treat transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (ATTR), was going at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 3rd. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.41) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.47) by $0.06. The business had revenue of $21.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $35.23 million. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 36.81% and a negative net margin of 565.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($1.25) earnings per share. equities analysts anticipate that Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

• [By Brian Orelli]

  Shares of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) were up 19% at 12:04 p.m. EDT on Monday after rival Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) released data for its transthyretin amyloid (ATTR) drug tafamidis at the ESC Congress 2018, which were also published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Earlier this month, Alnylam got its ATTR drug, Onpattro, approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) and Akcea Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKCA), which are jointly developing another ATTR drug, Tegsedi, are up 10% and 2.6% respectively.

• [By Brian Orelli]

  Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) and Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) looked to be in a two-horse race to develop TTR amyloidosis (ATTR) drugs. Alnylam recently got its drug Onpattro approved, while Ionis Pharmaceuticals and its marketing partner Akcea Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKCA) should hear about Tegsedi by Oct. 6. Tegsedi was approved in the EU last month.