NEW YORK, April 24 (GenomeWeb News) - Investment firm Global Brown Capital upgraded Affymetrix's stock to "Overweight" from "Underweight" today despite the microarray company's disappointing first-quarter revenue and earnings, announced late last week.
The upgrade comes one business day after investment bank Deutsche Securities downgraded the stock to "Hold" from "Buy."
As GenomeWeb News reported last week,Affymetrix said that first-quarter sales declined more than 10 percent as overall revenue fell 2.5 percent year over year amid growing R&D expenses and shrunken profits.
The results caused shares in the company to fall 19 percent briefly to $27.54, a new 52-week low, though they closed at $29.03. Today the stock was up nearly half a percent, or $.12, at $29.15 in mid-afternoon trading. Affy's stock has lost more than half its value since early July last year.
Two days earlier, the company said Sue Siegel, president since 1999, has resigned.