Illumina Sparks Mean Gene Rally — Wednesday’s IP Market Recap

by Kyle Woodley | January 25, 2012 4:53 pm

[1]A hostile bid by Swiss health care company Roche (PINK:RHHBY[2]) for gene sequencer Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN[3]) sent ILMN shares through the roof Wednesday and ignited rallies across the tiny sector.

Roche is offering to buy Illumina for $5.7 billion, or $44.50 per share — about a 20% premium from ILMN’s Tuesday closing price around $37.80. However, Illumina stock finished Wednesday at $55.15 per share — almost 46% higher. Roche is trying to corner the market in the DNA sequencing business — it’s currently the No. 3 player, behind Life Technologies (NASDAQ:LIFE[4]) and Illumina, the leader in market share at 65%.

Other genetic-based businesses rose in suit, including Complete Genomics (NASDAQ:GNOM[5], +19.6%) and Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB[6], +16.2%). Life Technologies also saw a relatively modest gain of 3.7%.

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX[7]) was cruising in after-hours trading on a strong earnings report that also included a 2.5% increase in subscribership. The company reported earnings of $41 million, or 73 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of 55 cents, though down 16% from the year-ago period. NFLX shares were trading up more than 10% in after-hours trading.

A couple other big movers on Wednesday came from the airlines industry, where US Airways (NYSE:LCC[8], +17.3%) and Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL[9], +6.2%) both gained ground after their morning earnings reports[10] beat Wall Street expectations.

Heading the other direction after earnings were Xerox (NYSE:XRX[11], -9.9%) and Corning (NYSE:GLW[12], -10.7%) — though InvestorPlace Editor Jeff Reeves thinks the dip in GLW shares might be a good buy-and-hold opportunity[13].

Three Up

• Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY[14]): Up 9.8% ($1.51) to $16.92.
• Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM[15]): Up 8.6% ($1.29) to $16.30.
• Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL[16]): Up 6.2% ($26.25) to $446.66.

Three Down

• Fusion-io (NYSE:FIO[17]): Down 16% ($4.84) to $25.50. (Read more about Fusion-io here[18].)
• LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC[19]): Down 15.5% ($1.59) to $8.64.
• WellPoint (NYSE:WLP[20]): Down 4.8% ($3.30) to $66.10.

Kyle Woodley is the assistant editor of InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Check out recaps from previous trading days here[21].

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/01/illumina-sparks-mean-gene-rally-wednesdays-ip-market-recap/

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