NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Shares of microarray firm Affymetrix tumbled about 7 percent after investment firm JP Morgan downgraded the company to "underweight" from "neutral."
In mid-afternoon trading, shares of the Santa Clara, Calif., firm's stock were down to $4.71 from $5.05 at the close of the market on Monday. More than 1.3 million shares had been traded, up from an average daily volume of less than 900,000 shares during the past three months.
In October, Affy reported that its third-quarter revenues had shrunk 5 percent due largely to a slowdown in its service business. Through the first nine months of 2010, the company's revenues were down 5 percent at $225.8 million compared to $238.3 million in the year-ago period.
At an investors conference in September, Affymetrix CEO Kevin King acknowledged the indifference that his firm is facing from the investor community, saying there is a misconception that microarrays have become an irrelevant technology.