NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – With stock markets continuing their declines throughout the month of November, most of the publicly traded life science tool vendors were not immune to the downturn. However, a handful managed gains for their stocks amid the difficult economic climate.
Overall, the GenomeWeb Daily News Index, which includes 33 of the publicly traded tool and molecular diagnostics vendors, dropped 9 percent for November, a fairly steep drop but not anywhere near the 22 percent decline registered in October. In comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 5.3 percent, the Nasdaq fell 10.8 percent, and the Nasdaq Biotech Index lost 8.3 percent for the month.
The stocks of eight of the firms in the GWDN Index gained ground during the month, with Luminex leading the way an 18 percent increase. The molecular diagnostics tools and assay developer reported early in the month that its third-quarter revenues increased 49 percent to $28.9 million. It also upped its full-year 2008 revenue guidance to between $102 million and $107 million from a previous range of between $95 million and $105 million.
Four other firms had double-digit gains for the month: CombiMatrix (+15.4 percent), Bruker (+14.9 percent), Cepheid (+14.4 percent), and Qiagen (+13.1 percent). CombiMatrix’s rebound comes one month after its stock had slid 57 percent in October.
The biggest decliner for November was Compugen, whose shares fell 58.9 percent. Compugen began the month by saying that it has sufficient cash on hand and marketable securities to run its business “well into 2010.” The statement was in response to investors’ questions regarding the firm’s cash position.
A week later, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based firm said that third-quarter revenues dropped sharply and it planned to cut staff and reduce its expenses by 30 percent.
In addition to Compugen, two firms had stock-price decreases of more than 30 percent for November: MDS (-33.8 percent) and Nanogen (-32 percent).
Nanogen is trading well below the $1 minimum bid price required for continued trading on the Nasdaq and is in danger of being delisted. The firm has until Feb. 26, 2009 to regain compliance with the exchange’s listing requirements.
Note: There have been a couple of changes to the GWDN Index since last month. Applied Biosystems and Invitrogen merged to form Life Technologies. In addition, Vermillion, which is trading on the OTC Bulletin Board, was removed from the Index.
|
GenomeWeb Daily News Index
|
||||
| Company |
Ticker
|
Current Price
(Nov. 28, 2008) |
Last
Price (Oct. 31, 2008) |
% change
|
| Accelrys |
ACCL
|
3.90
|
4.79
|
-18.58
|
| Accelr8 |
AXK
|
2.50
|
2.74
|
-8.76
|
| Affymetrix |
AFFX
|
2.74
|
3.69
|
-25.75
|
| Agilent |
A
|
18.83
|
22.19
|
-15.14
|
| Beckman |
BEC
|
43.58
|
49.92
|
-12.70
|
| Becton Dickinson |
BDX
|
63.53
|
69.40
|
-8.46
|
| Bio-Rad |
BIO
|
74.16
|
85.38
|
-13.14
|
| Bruker |
BRKR
|
4.70
|
4.09
|
14.91
|
| Caliper |
CALP
|
1.13
|
1.40
|
-19.29
|
| Celera |
CRA
|
9.74
|
11.31
|
-13.88
|
| Cepheid |
CPHD
|
13.58
|
11.87
|
14.41
|
| Clinical Data |
CLDA
|
9.50
|
11.00
|
-13.64
|
| CombiMatrix |
CBMX
|
7.34
|
6.36
|
15.41
|
| Compugen |
CGEN
|
0.60
|
1.46
|
-58.90
|
| DeCode Genetics |
DCGN
|
0.24
|
0.27
|
-11.11
|
| Genomic Health |
GHDX
|
18.53
|
18.43
|
0.54
|
| Gen-Probe |
GPRO
|
36.85
|
47.06
|
-21.70
|
| Helicos BioSciences |
HLCS
|
0.70
|
0.77
|
-9.09
|
| Illumina |
ILMN
|
22.01
|
30.83
|
-28.61
|
| Life Technologies |
LIFE
|
26.10
|
28.79
|
-9.34
|
| Luminex |
LMNX
|
22.01
|
18.65
|
18.02
|
| MDS |
MDZ
|
7.04
|
10.64
|
-33.83
|
| Millipore |
MIL
|
50.66
|
51.89
|
-2.37
|
| Nanogen |
NGEN
|
0.17
|
0.25
|
-32.00
|
| Nanosphere |
NSPH
|
5.00
|
4.98
|
0.40
|
| Orchid Cellmark |
ORCH
|
0.86
|
1.18
|
-27.12
|
| PerkinElmer |
PKI
|
18.06
|
17.94
|
0.67
|
| Qiagen |
QGEN
|
16.13
|
14.26
|
13.11
|
| Rosetta Genomics |
ROSG
|
2.17
|
2.45
|
-11.43
|
| Sequenom |
SQNM
|
16.71
|
18.00
|
-7.17
|
| Sigma-Aldrich |
SIAL
|
43.11
|
43.86
|
-1.71
|
| Thermo |
TMO
|
35.68
|
40.60
|
-12.12
|
| Waters |
WAT
|
41.23
|
43.80
|
-5.87
|
| GWDN Index Average | 18.76 |
20.61
|
-8.99
|
|