ISIS: Keep an Eye

ISIS Pharmaceuticals, a drug company that is working on Antinsense technology (a new platform of treatment) is picking up some new momentum. (Y! Finance Ticker)

The company has had some interesting spin offs (Ibis - bought by Abbott) . So, it is worth keeping an eye incase Biogen or another large cap biopharma decides to gobble up ISIS.

This is not a recommendation, but just an intelligent guess.

Good luck.

past posts on ISIS are here.

Month End Closing takes some Biotech stocks Lower

I have been watching certain Biotech stocks [ISIS (long), INCY (none)] over the past several weeks. Both have had fairly good gains, but today, as the market is down ~0.5%, we see that both of the stocks mentioned above are down 3% or so. While fundamentally no news has come out to bring them down more than the general market sentiment, it leads me to surmise that this might be due to month end closing of books and rebalancing of portfolios at some institutions.
That could be one cause of higher selling volume and consequent price drop. However, from technical standpoint, INCY is shying close to the 50 dma so it cuts through and goes below (21.4) the risk of it falling further is enhanced, barring any other major news.
No specific direction offered on either stocks for now. "Hold" is the word.

STOCK WATCH: SNTS CLDX INCY ISIS

Watch out for these pharma/biotech stocks to show increasing activity in the next couple of months.

SNTS: Has fair amount of cash on hand ($100 million), low debt, great pipeline and good revenue (2009- $180 million). The company also has a low float so any positive action would trigger large increases in price due to short covering. Also the possibility of a takeover is quite high.

CLDX: Although PFE snapped ties with CLDX, there is a likelihood that some other pharma company might snap it up! They have sufficient cash on hand to go forward for now. (speculative play - depending on their trials etc)

INCY: This stock has been doing quite well on a technical basis and performing on its own right as a pharma company. Look to INCY climbing after earnings and also to around well over $25 by the end of the year.

ISIS: Receiving payments and royalties on a regular basis, ISIS has been a steady performer, with recent partnerships with  GSK and also (Regulus with Sanofi) ISIS is a strong player in the mRNA market. ISIS did two positive Phase 3 studies of mipomersen in the past year and once that drug (Sold by Genzyme) gets marketing approval, the royalty payments would increase. For technical traders, if ISIS breaks 10 and holds, then there can be significant upside.