NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The GenomeWeb Index of 31 firms operating in the molecular diagnostics and omics tools industries beat the broader stock market in June with four of the firms providing a double-digit increase in their stock prices.
Overall, the GenomeWeb Index climbed 2 percent month over month, compared to 2 percent declines for both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq, and beating the Nasdaq Biotech Index, which closed up slightly more than 1 percent month over month.
Leading the way among firms in the GenomeWeb Index was Bio-Reference Laboratories. The firm, whose stock gained 24 percent, inked a deal early in June to be acquired by Opko Health for around $1.47 billion. The terms of the deal value BRL's shares at $52.58.
The other top gainers for the month included Cepheid (+11 percent), Exact Sciences (+10 percent), and NanoString Technologies (+10 percent).
Cepheid's shares gained momentum at the end of the month and were upgraded to a Buy rating and $75 price target by Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Though Cepheid's shares were trading near a 52-week high as of the end of June, in afternoon trading today its stock was down around 5 percent at $58.04.
Late in June, Exact Sciences forecast 21,000 completed Cologuard tests for the second quarter, above earlier expectations of 18,000 tests for its flagship product.
NanoString hit a 52-week high of $16.40 on June 24, though there were no obvious catalysts for the jump in stock price. However, in late May it inked a companion diagnostics deal with Merck.
Sequenom led decliners, falling 9 percent month over month. During June, a US Court of Appeals upheld an earlier district court decision that invalidated a key patent covering circulating cell-free DNA, which is employed in the company's noninvasive prenatal test.
