Tag Archives: Optimer Pharmaceuticals

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

It's Showtime for Optimer Pharmaceuticals

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By Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool

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Optimer Pharmaceuticals (NAS: OPTR) is expected to report Q1 earnings around May 3. Here’s what Wall Street wants to see:

The 10-second takeaway
 Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Optimer Pharmaceuticals‘s revenues will expand 48.1% and EPS will remain in the red.

The average estimate for revenue is $21.3 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is -$0.46.

Revenue details
 Last quarter, Optimer Pharmaceuticals booked revenue of $19.5 million. GAAP reported sales were 70% lower than the prior-year quarter’s $64.6 million.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
 Last quarter, EPS came in at $0.02. GAAP EPS of $0.02 for Q4 were 93% lower than the prior-year quarter’s $0.28 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Recent performance
 For the preceding quarter, gross margin was 84.5%, 900 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was -155.4%, much worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 5.1%, much worse than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead

The full year’s average estimate for revenue is $99.7 million. The average EPS estimate is -$1.83.

Investor sentiment
 The stock has a one-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 106 members out of 146 rating the stock outperform, and 40 members rating it underperform. Among 45 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 30 give Optimer Pharmaceuticals a green thumbs-up, and 15 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Optimer Pharmaceuticals is outperform, with an average price target of $16.56.

The article It’s Showtime for Optimer Pharmaceuticals originally appeared on Fool.com.


Seth Jayson had no position in any company mentioned here at the time of publication. You can view his stock holdings here. He is co-advisor of Motley Fool Hidden Gems, which provides new small-cap ideas every month, backed by a real-money portfolio. 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

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Optimer Pharmaceuticals Shares Soar… for the Right Price, That Is!

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By Sean Williams, The Motley Fool

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Although we don’t believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes — just in case they’re material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of biopharmaceutical company Optimer Pharmaceuticals rose by as much as 24% after a Bloomberg report cited that interested bidders in the company could include GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, and Astellas Pharma.

So what: The news of interest in Optimer — which has one approved drug in Dificid for the treatment of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea — shouldn’t be any surprise as the company jumped higher in late February when it announced it had planned a strategic review for the company. According to people familiar with the matter, Optimer could draw as much as $1 billion in value. As you might imagine, not a single company was willing to comment on these “rumors.”

Now what: As I said back in February, with only one drug currently on the market, any buyer would be crazy to pay a significant premium just to get their hands on Dificid. Based on the $154 million sales estimate by Wall Street in 2014, I can’t imagine Dificid sales getting much past $200 million to $225 million at their peak. In short, what large pharmaceutical is going to pay more than three times peak sales for one drug? Not too many that I know of, which is why I’d suggest backing away from Optimer.

Craving more input? Start by adding Optimer Pharmaceuticals to your free and personalized watchlist so you can keep up on the latest news with the company. 

While you can certainly make huge gains in biotechs like Optimer, 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 Optimer Pharmaceuticals Shares Soar… for the Right Price, That Is! originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.
The Motley Fool recommends Cubist Pharmaceuticals. 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 …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Amarantus BioScience Appoints Mark Benedyk, Ph.D., to Board of Directors

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Amarantus BioScience Appoints Mark Benedyk, Ph.D., to Board of Directors

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Amarantus BioScience, Inc. (OTCQB: AMBS), a biotechnology company discovering and developing treatments and diagnostics for diseases associated with neurodegeneration and apoptosis centered around its patented therapeutic protein Mesencephalic Astrocyte Neurotrophic Factor (MANF), has appointed Mark Benedyk, Ph.D., to its Board of Directors. Dr. Benedyk has over 18 years of experience as a senior business development executive and consultant to life science companies, and has served as a Corporate Advisor to Amarantus since 2011. With the addition of Dr. Benedyk, the Amarantus board has four members, two of whom are considered independent directors, including Dr. Benedyk.

“I am excited to join the Amarantus board at such an important stage of the Company’s scientific and business development growth,” said Dr. Benedyk. “I look forward to helping the Company as it advances MANF towards the clinic for Parkinson’s disease, and executes a commercial strategy for its promising clinical diagnostic tests for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.”

Gerald E. Commissiong, President and Chief Executive Officer of Amarantus BioScience, stated “Mark Benedyk has played a significant role in the growth and success of several leading healthcare companies. With his knowledge and understanding of clinical development and regulatory affairs, as well as the financial and operating requirements of a development-stage company, Mark will be an important resource for all aspects of managing our progress and creating value for shareholders.”

Dr. Benedyk is currently a Managing Partner at Rila Partners LLC, a business and corporate development consultancy. In this role he serves on the Strategic Advisory Board of KemPharm, Inc., is a Director at the Center for Drug Research and Development Ventures, Inc., and is a member of the Translational Medicine Advisory Board of the CNS Regenerative Medicine Foundation. Previously he was head of The Pfizer Incubator (TPI) where his duties included membership on the TPI Board of Directors, board positions with TPI portfolio companies, oversight of the TPI operations team, and reviewing investment opportunities in multiple technologies.

Dr. Benedyk has held executive business development roles at Ascenta Therapeutics, Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Aurora Biosciences (acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals), and Elan Pharmaceuticals, where he led partnering efforts for several key clinical-stage products for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease, migraine and other neurological indications. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental and Molecular Genetics from The Rockefeller University, and Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology and Botany from the University of Michigan.

About Amarantus BioScience

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why Optimer Pharmaceuticals Is Poised to Pull Back

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By Brian D. Pacampara, Pacampara, The Motley Fool

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool’s free investing community, biopharmaceutical company Optimer Pharmaceuticals has received the dreaded one-star ranking.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Optimer and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Optimer facts

Headquarters (founded)

San Diego, Calif. (1998)

Market Cap

$599.0 million

Industry

Pharmaceuticals

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$101.5 million

Management

Chairman/CEO Henry McKinnell
CFO Stephen Webster

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

(47.3%)

Cash/Debt

$124.0 million / $0

Competitors

Bayer
Pfizer
Sanofi

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 27% of the 149 members who have rated Optimer believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just last week, one of those Fools, All-Star zzlangerhans, succinctly summed up the bear case for our community:

Optimer stock is weathering yet another quarter of disappointing Dificid revenues by floating the old “strategic alternatives ” flag. Sometimes the sale happens, more often than not it doesn’t. I remember that tactic didn’t work out very well for [Savient Pharmaceuticals]. Dificid has been a confusing underperformer, given that clostridium difficile infection continues to be a crisis in the US health care system and the available therapeutics are clearly insufficient. Perhaps a larger pharma feels like they have the skills to make Dificid more profitable, but I suspect antibiotics are a relatively low priority for most of those companies. Even if a buyout does occur, I think it will take long enough that most of the short-term momo traders will get bored and exit.

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The article Why Optimer Pharmaceuticals Is Poised to Pull Back originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Brian Pacampara has no position in any stocks mentioned. 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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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance