Amylin Perks Up on Rejection — Wednesday’s IP Market Recap

by Kyle Woodley | March 28, 2012 5:04 pm

[1]Pharmaceutical M&A news made for one of the most interesting market moves of the day, leaving a group of investors with about 50% more money than they carried into Wednesday’s trading.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMLN[2]) shot up by 54% Wednesday on reports that it rejected a $3.5 billion takeover bid from Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY[3]) earlier this year.

A Deutsche Bank analyst says Amylin’s diabetes drug Bydureon, which recently received regulatory approval, “could be worth up to $1.5 billion in peak annual sales,” according to a Bloomberg report[4], and says AMLN shares could be worth up to $31. The proposed deal from Bristol-Myers was thought to be $22 per share; AMLN finished Wednesday’s trading at $23.81.

A Leerink Swann analyst thinks potential future suitors could include AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN[5]) and French pharma outfit Sanofi (NYSE:SNY[6]), according to the report.

Homebuilder KB Home (NYSE:KBH[7]) continued a weeks-long freefall in which it has seen shares lose almost 30% of their value. KBH dropped about 3% to $9.29 on Wednesday, possibly brought on by continued worry about KB Home’s first-quarter earnings report, in which the company recorded an almost $46 million (59 cents per share) loss, far worse than expectations for a 34-cent loss. KBH also saw an 8% drop in orders for the period.

And although the big headline of the day was the national price for gas heading up to $3.90 per gallon, several energy stocks weren’t up for the climb. Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK[8]) was down 4.1%, Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY[9]) shed 3.6% and HollyFrontier (NYSE:HFC[10]) lost about 3.5%, among others.

A few companies also made their public-trading debuts, including Vocera Communications (NYSE:VCRA[11], more here[12]) and organic food brand Annie’s (NYSE:BNNY[13], more here[14]).

Three Up

• Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR[15]): Up 7.5% (97 cents) to $13.94.
• PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM[16]): Up 4.6% (42 cents) to $9.48.
• United Continental (NYSE:UAL[17]): Up 4.6% (96 cents) to $21.89.

Three Down

• Affymax (NASDAQ:AFFY[18]): Down 8.1% ($1.16) to $13.15.
• Sears Holdings (NASDAQ:SHLD[19]): Down 6.1% ($4.51) to $68.99. (Read more about Sears here[20])
• Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA[21]): Down 6% (78 cents) to $12.24.

Kyle Woodley[22] is the assistant editor of InvestorPlace.com[23]. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Check out recaps from previous trading days here[24].

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/03/amylin-perks-up-on-rejection-wednesdays-ip-market-recap/

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