Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Groupon, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
CHICAGO, Feb. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Zacks Equity Research highlights Alexion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ALXN-Free Report) as the Bull of the Day and Groupon (Nasdaq:GRPN-Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis onFacebook (Nasdaq:FB-Free Report), Twitter (NYSE:TWTR-Free Report) and LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD-Free Report).
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Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Biotechnology was full of success stories in 2013. And some of those stories just got more exciting in February as the Nasdaq Biotech Index (IBB) rallied 13% off the lows. My FTM Portfolio also surged higher on the back of names like Pharmacyclics, Medivation and Alnylam.
But Alexion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ALXN-Free Report) was one of the heavy lifters of that IBB performance since it comprises nearly 5% of that index. ALXN shares rallied 17% this month to hit an all-time closing high of $181.52 after a strong quarterly report in late January that first vaulted the stock over 20% in one day from the low $130s to over $160.
What was all the excitement about that had this biotech superstar making a $50 (nearly 40%) move in under 3 weeks? Sales and taxes, of course.
Alexion's revenues jumped 38% to approximately $442 million in the final quarter of 2013 -- beating the consensus by over $10 million -- driven by strong sales of their key drug Soliris, which is the only treatment available for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH).
PNH is a rare genetic blood disorder characterized by the onset of severe hemolytic anemia, chronic fatigue and intermittent episodes of dark colored urine, known as hemoglobinuria. Because of the life-saving benefits for these patients that only come from Soliris, major insurance companies support one of the highest price tags of any drug treatment at roughly $440,000.
In the fluid world where e-commerce and social media waters merge, it's sometimes hard for investors to figure out what's going on with the business models and the growth strategy. That was no where more evident than last week when Groupon (Nasdaq:GRPN-Free Report) crushed investor hopes again with another disappointing quarterly report.
The news wasn't all terrible as revenues jumped 20.4% year over year to $768.4 million, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $719.0 million. The year-over-year growth was primarily driven by a 63.0% jump in direct revenues, which offset a 2.8% decline in third party and other revenues in the last quarter.
And region-wise, revenues from North America and EMEA surged 18.2% and 42.5% year over year, respectively. This more than offset a 15.3% decline in revenues from Rest of the World (Asia-Pacific and Latin America).
But guidance was weak and signs of the turnaround got pushed further out as the decline in North American business is not what Wall Street wanted to hear. For this, shares were pummeled 22% to $8 on massive volume of nearly 140 million shares (more than 7X the average).
Additional content:
GrubHub Seamless Files for IPO, Quietly
Reportedly, GrubHub Seamless Inc. has made a confidential filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO).
GrubHub Seamless is a mobile and online food-ordering company with a catalogue of more than 26,500 take-out restaurants in roughly 600 U.S. cities and London . It was formed when Chicago-based Grubhub and New York-based Seamless — two of the leading U.S. online food ordering services — merged in May 2013.
The combined entity processes about 150,000 customer orders on a daily basis. In 2012, the company generated sales of more than $100 million. GrubHub Seamless' filing can be kept confidential as that the law allows any company with less than $1 billion in revenues in the past fiscal year can initially file an IPO secretly with regulators.
The company is expected to launch the IPO in the first half of the year. No details were made available beyond the confidential announcement. Given the lack of details, it is reasonable to assume that a GrubHub Seamless IPO still might be some way off, but it is worth speculating whether the company will be a good investment.
GrubHub Seamless is making great progress to improve revenues, thanks mostly to a surge in mobile users and increasing demand for online food ordering services. The frequent use of tablets and smartphones has fueled the growth in the online food ordering market. According to a new study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Viggle, approximately 69% of consumers order food online using a mobile device. They use their mobile devices to find out restaurant locations, check out menus and read reviews.
Most recently, GrubHub Seamless announced a partnership with Foursquare that will allow Foursquare users to order takeout directly through the app available on all iOS and Android devices. Considering Foursquare ' s user base of over 45 million, we believe that this significantly expands GrubHub's reach.
The 2013 IPO market delivered its best performance in more than a decade. As per IPO research intelligence Renaissance Capital, 2013 was the banner year for the IPO market, as 222 companies completed their IPOs, raising nearly $55 billion. Most of the companies that went public last year have outperformed the broad markets and many generated triple-digit returns. These include Facebook (Nasdaq:FB-Free Report), up 82.0% since its IPO, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR-Free Report), up 26.1%, and LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD-Free Report), up triple-digits.
This trend will likely continue this year given a surging stock market, improving economic fundamentals and increasing consumer confidence. Other companies which are expected to go public this year include Coupons.com Inc. and GoPro Inc., which have also filed confidentially for their IPOs. Online storage company Box Inc. and web home-goods retailer Wayfair LLC have also hired banks to ready potential IPOs.
This is clearly a great environment to bring a fresh consumer technology stock to market, but pricing is hard to predict given the lack of available details.
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