Tag Archives: Acadia Pharmaceuticals

Acadia Leaps Toward the Finish Line

By David Williamson, The Motley Fool

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After an incredible performance in late March, when shares of Acadia Pharmaceuticals jumped up 23%, they have once again exploded today, up 40% intraday. What’s behind these massive leaps for this pharmaceutical company, and is there more on the way? In this video, Motley Fool health-care analyst David Williamson tells investors about the drug that has Acadia investors so excited, why it has so many competitive advantages, and what investors need to watch from here.

While you can certainly make huge gains in biotech and pharmaceuticals, the best investing approach is to choose great companies and stick with them for the long term. The Motley Fool‘s free report, “3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich,” names stocks that could help you build long-term wealth and retire well, along with some winning wealth-building strategies that every investor should be aware of. Click here now to keep reading.

The article Acadia Leaps Toward the Finish Line originally appeared on Fool.com.


David Williamson owns shares of Pfizer. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/acadia-leaps-toward-the-finish-line/

How UnitedHealth Helped Ease the Dow's Pain

By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Investors got what they expected over the weekend, as a bailout for banks in Cyprus finally materialized at the last minute. But apparently, the exact terms of the bailout weren’t what investors had been hoping to see. After initially gaining ground and sending the S&P 500 close to a new record early in the day, stocks reversed dramatically, plunging to losses of more than 100 points. The selloff came from fears that a cascading impact of bank-related problems in other European countries such as Spain and Italy could result from the Cypriot deal. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrials were down 64 points, although broader markets were down a bit less steeply.

But some stocks in the Dow rose. UnitedHealth Group gained three-quarters of a percent as it managed to pick up some business serving Arizona’s Medicaid program in the two largest counties in the state, as well as winning a contract serving children’s rehab statewide. The pick-up came at the expense of Vanguard Health , which saw its shares drop more than 6% on news that it had lost the Arizona contract. Health-care companies will increasingly have to defend their territory as competition increases, especially on government contracts that will get more important as Obamacare takes effect.

Elsewhere, Acadia Pharmaceuticals soared nearly 10% as an analyst from Jefferies expects its psychosis treatment pimavanserin, which targets patients who have Parkinson’s disease, to gain FDA approval. Following favorable data reported at a conference of neurologists last week, the company has already seen substantial gains recently, but even an application for approval could still be some months away.

Finally, Nordic American Tankers jumped more than 5% on favorable comments from much-followed analyst Jim Cramer last Friday night. Although the tanker company is arguably a speculative play based on an expected eventual rebound in the hard-hit shipping industry, especially given analyst expectations that the company will keep losing money at least through 2014, Nordic American does have a relatively clean balance sheet, giving it the ability to make smart strategic asset acquisitions as well as letting it sustain a substantial dividend yield approaching 6%.

UnitedHealth and other health insurers saw their shares fall immediately when President Obama got re-elected, but is Obamacare a death knell for health insurers, or is the market missing out on some of the opportunities the law presents? Find out about the prospects for UnitedHealth in a post-Obamacare world by reading the Motley Fool‘s premium report on UnitedHealth. Don’t miss out — simply click here now to claim your copy today.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Whoa! What Just Happened to My Stock?

By Rich Duprey, The Motley Fool

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The EU’s decision to seize the bank accounts of ordinary Cypriot depositors was front and center again as concerns that the financial sector could come under tremendous pressure should the crisis ripple out from the island caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to fall by 90 points yesterday. With Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase wobbling, the index pulled back from its recent high.

The three stocks below, however, were far removed from the scene of international intrigue rising on their own merits. Yet resist the urge to high-five everyone in the cubicles next to you. Smart investors won’t celebrate until they know why their stock surged, because without a fundamental basis for the bounce, these stocks could just as quickly make the return trip down.

Company

% Gain

Acadia Pharmaceuticals

23.9%

SUPERVALU 

11.7%

Denison Mines

9.5%

Psychoanalyzing growth
Psych! Drug developer Acadia Pharmaceuticals said its drug pimavanserin met a series of secondary end points in a phase 3 clinical trial following previously reported results that it met its primary end point. The potential for FDA approval of what could become a first-in-class treatment has markedly improved and investors responded accordingly.

Pimavanserin is designed to treat psychosis in patients with Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating disorder that develops in up to 60% of Parkinson’s patients but for which there are no drugs currently approved in the U.S. to specifically treat it. Because there’s also the very real possibility it could be used to treat a similar disorder in patients suffering from schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease — and for which Acadia has the drug in phase 2 trials — this could be a huge winner for the pharmaceutical.

Of course, should it make it through the FDA‘s regulatory gauntlet it will have to compete with various anti-psychotic drugs like AstraZeneca‘s Seroquel, Eli Lilly‘s Zyprexa, Risperdal from Johnson & Johnson, and generic clozapine — all of which doctors prescribe off-label — but a drug specifically approved to treat the disorder just might gain a lot of traction .

Clean up in aisle 3!
Because it already owned 655 Albertsons stores from when SUPERVALU acquired the chain in 2006, Cerberus Capital Management was always the lead bidder to acquire the chain when it was put up for sale, but it was also out front because it was willing to accept the all the brands that the supermarket operator was selling as opposed to cherry-picking the ones it wanted.

In January, SUPERVALU said it would sell Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, and a number of other names to AB Acquisition, a Cerberus subsidiary, in a deal worth $3.3 billion. SUPERVALU would get $100 million in cash and have $3.2 billion in debt assumed and will also keep the Save-A-Lot banner that has 1,300 stores nationwide. Cerberus will also become a major shareholder owning more than 21% of SUPERVALU‘s stock and will get two seats on its board of directors.

Shares of SUPERVALU are up …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Here's What This $41 Billion Hedge Fund Company Has Been Buying

By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Every quarter, many money managers have to disclose what they’ve bought and sold, via “13F” filings. Their latest moves can shine a bright light on smart stock picks.

Today, let’s look at the D. E. Shaw company, founded by David E. Shaw and with a reportable stock portfolio totaling $41 billion in value as of Dec. 31, 2012.

Shaw is known as a math wizard and a quantitative investing pioneer. His firm is reportedly extremely selective, hiring less than 1% of applicants — and Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos once made the cut.

Interesting developments
So what does D. E. Shaw’s latest quarterly 13F filing tell us? Here are a few interesting details:

The biggest new holdings are Kraft Foods Group and ADT. Other new holdings of interest include Spectrum Pharmaceuticals . Spectrum has been experiencing strong growth due to the success of its colorectal cancer drug Fusilev, but that was partly due to a supply shortage faced by generic competitors. With that issue going away, Spectrum recently trimmed its growth expectations, sending the heavily shorted stock down sharply. Still, it has more than a dozen other drugs in development in its pipeline, and has broadened its scope with the recent purchase of Allos Therapeutics, which is expected to help cut costs and also includes the lymphoma drug Folotyn. Spectrum also recently secured rights for the bladder-cancer drug apaziquone.

Among holdings in which D. E. Shaw increased its stake was Acadia Pharmaceuticals , which has tripled in value over the past year, on high hopes for its pimavanserin drug, which treats psychosis in patients with Parkinson’s disease and is nearing the phase 3 trial finish line. If the drug gains FDA approval, it will enjoy little competition and could be a big winner for Acadia. The company thinks the drug also might be effective against psychosis related to Alzheimer’s Disease and is conducting trials for that as well.

D. E. Shaw reduced its stake in lots of companies, including Mesabi Trust and Molycorp . With a recent hefty dividend yield of 8.2%, Mesabi Trust is a royalty trust collecting a cut of the proceeds from iron mined by a Cliffs Natural Resources subsidiary — and then paying them out to shareholders. Unlike many companies with fixed payouts, Mesabi’s fluctuate over time, along with the fortunes of the mines, and while royalty trusts often have expiration dates, Mesabi’s expiration isn’t happening anytime soon. A possible downside for the stock is a slowdown in demand for ore, particularly in China, which has been one of several issues for Cliffs.

Molycorp has been struggling in a tough environment and recently worried investors with a surprisingly large share offering and debt issuance. (Some worry about further capital needs, too, and don’t like its negative free cash flow.) Still, for those who can accept considerable risk and volatility, there’s a lot of promise in Molycorp, in part due to its acquisition of Neo Materials …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance