NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Investment bank ISI Group this week downgraded shares of PerkinElmer and upgraded shares of Danaher.
In a research note, analyst Ross Muken lowered the rating for PerkinElmer to Neutral from Buy, saying that the company's stock is "now approaching the upper end of its historical range, and therefore we see limited opportunity for multiple expansion." He maintained a $49 price target on PerkinElmer's shares.
Separately, Muken upgraded Danaher's shares to a Strong Buy rating from a Buy rating and raised his price target on its stock to $86. He said that investors are showing increased interest in "high-quality large cap companies with robust [free cash flow] yields and attractive balance sheet optionality," such as Danaher. He further noted that the market has been slow to recognize and appreciate changes at the company as it has "used M&A and notable improvements to reposition the company as a leader in science and technology with a more attractive gross margin and a higher [return on invested capital] profile vs. historical."
Venaxis closed its public offering of about 8.3 million shares of its common stock at $2.40 per share, raising about $18.4 million. The Castle Rock, Colo.-based firm, which developed the APPY1 test for appendicitis, also granted the underwriters on the offering a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.25 million shares to cover any overallotments. Canaccord Genuity was the sole book-running manager, while Craig-Hallum Capital Group was the lead manager.
Venaxis submitted a 510(k) application to the US Food and Drug Administration last month for clearance of APPY1.
Nuclea Biotechnologies raised almost $4.5 million in a convertible note financing. The notes mature in October and are convertible into Nuclea Bio's convertible preferred securities. The funds will be used to pay for its acquisition of Wilex and ongoing manufacturing and marketing activities. Nuclea has raised $45.7 million in total since its founding in 2005, it said.
AdvanDx has received EN ISO 13485:2012 and EN ISO 9001:2008 certification. To be certified for EN ISO 9001:2008, the company had to demonstrate a quality management system that could provide products that meet statutory, regulatory, and customer requirements, AdvanDx said. EN ISO 13485:2012 is a standard for quality management systems for the design, manufacturing, and distribution of medical devices. The Woburn, Mass.-based molecular diagnostics firm also said this week it raised $12 million in a Series B-1 financing.
Covaris announced the opening of its European subsidiary located in Brighton, England. When it starts operations on May 1, the subsidiary will be staffed with sales, service, and application representatives throughout Europe to support recently launched application kits, including truXtrac for FFPE DNA extraction and truChIP for chromatin shearing. Adrian Palmer will manage the UK office.
In Brief This Week is a Friday column containing news items that our readers may have missed during the week.