Stocks That Made New Highs on Friday

By Fred Fuld III

Yesterday, Friday, August 19, 2022, in spite of the stock market being down, there were several stocks that actually made new highs.

Many stock traders believe that when a stock makes a new high, it is bullish for the stock.

Plus if a stock makes new highs on a day when the stock market drops, then that is very positive for the stock and extremely bullish.

So yesterday, the S&P 500 was down 55, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 292, and the NASDAQ was down an incredible 260, which was a drop of more than 2%.

In spite of that, there were a select few companies that did rise on Friday.

The following is a group of the new high stocks, most of which are biotech companies.

Axsome Therapeutics (AXSM)

NL Industries (NL)

ADMA Biologics (ADMA)

Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT)

Supernus Pharmaceuticals (SUPN)

Artesian Resources (ARTNA)

Keep in mind that some of these stock are very low cap and therefore very speculative.

Check out the related articles of interest

10 BDC Stocks Paying Over 8%

4 Equity REITs Paying High Yields Over 10%

DisclosureL Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Free COVID Tests: What Stocks Will Benefit?

by Fred Fuld III

By now, you have probably heard the news. President Biden has announced that the U.S. Government will be buying 500 million take-at-home COVID test kits to distribute to Americans.

You will be able to order your free COVID test kit from a website in January.

So who is making the test kits? The government hasn’t announced yet what company or companies it will be buying from, but there are several business involved in producing these kits.

For example, Abbott Labs (ABT) is one of the largest manufacturers of COVID test kits. The company produces five different antigen tests (including theBinaxNow COVID-19 Ag Card2 Home Test), three different PCR tests, three different serological tests, and one isothermal amplification test.

Becton, Dickinson (BDX), which makes several COVID tests, has a BD Veritor At-Home COVID-19 Test.

Quidel Corporation (QDEL), produces many COVID tests, has two at-home COVID tests.

Even Amazon (AMZN) is getting in on the act in partnership with SDS Lab Holdco.

The following is a list of the publicly traded stocks that produce COVID tests. Not all of these companies make an at-home test.

Abbott Labs (ABT)
Amazon (AMZN)
Becton, Dickinson and Company (BDX)
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (BIO)
Bruker Corporation (BRKR)
Co-Diagnostics, Inc. (CODX)
Eli Lilly and Company (LLY)
PerkinElmer, Inc. (PKI)
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH)
LumiraDx Limited (LMDX)
Ortho Clinical Diagnostics Holdings plc (OCDX)
QIAGEN N.V. (QGEN)
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (DGX)
Quidel Corporation (QDEL)
Roche Holding AG (RHHBY)
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO)

Hoping that you and your portfolio stay healthy.

 

Disclosure: Author is long AMZN.

Stocks in the Race for the COVID-19 Vaccine

by Nkem Iregbulem

Since the start of the global coronavirus pandemic, various U.S. biotechnology companies have entered the race to develop COVID-19 therapies and vaccines. To aid and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. government initiated a public-private partnership called Operation Warp Speed. This partnership hopes to deliver 300 million doses of a successful vaccine by January of next year. To achieve this goal, Operation Warp Speed selected eight companies with promising vaccine candidates to receive government funding — namely, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca-University of Oxford, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Merck, Vaxart, Inovio, and Novavax.

Investing in biotechnology companies with a foot in the vaccine race may be financially worthwhile if certain candidates prove successful in their efforts to develop a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. In fact, the stock prices for many of these companies fighting against the coronavirus pandemic are already trading near record highs. Your options include Moderna (MRNA), Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO), Novavax (NVAX), Vaxart (VXRT), and Sorrento (SRNE). All of these stocks are traded on the NASDAQ exchange.

Your first option is Moderna (MRNA), a biotech company primarily focused on discovering and developing therapeutics and vaccines based on messenger RNA, or mRNA. These technologies are designed to handle infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, autoimmune and cardiovascular disease. In January of this year, Moderna announced it had started developing its own COVID-19 vaccine, named mRNA-1273. In late July, the company’s vaccine candidate entered Phase 3 trials with the launch of a 30,000-subject trial. This progress puts Moderna ahead of many other companies in the race for the vaccine. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Massachusetts, Moderna has a market cap of $27.51 billion and does not pay a dividend. Its stock has a price-to-sales ratio of 474.82 and a price-to-book ratio of 16.76. As of its most recent quarter, Moderna has $1.22 billion in total cash and $151.84 million in total debt. With its revenue decreasing each fiscal year since 2018, the company faces a negative 3-year revenue growth rate of -17.80%.

Another vaccine stock to pay attention to is Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO), a biotechnology company that discovers, develops, and commercializes synthetic DNA medicines and vaccines to treat and protect against HPV-associated diseases, infectious diseases, and cancers. The company is developing its very own DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, INO-4800. Inovio’s INO-4800 is currently in Phase 1 trials in the U.S., and a Phase 2/3 trial is expected to begin this summer. Founded in 1983 and based in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, Inovio has a market cap of $3.07 billion and does not pay a dividend. Its stock has a high price-to-sales ratio of 786.00 and price-to-book ratio of 16.67. As of its most recent quarter, Inovio has $270 million in total cash and $98.52 million in total debt. Inovio has seen decreasing revenue each fiscal year since 2017, contributing to its negative 3-year revenue growth rate of -51.19%.

You might also consider Novavax (NVAX) — founded in 1987 and headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The late-stage biotechnology company focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing vaccines to prevent a wide variety of infectious diseases. Some of its current vaccine candidates are geared towards influenza and RSV. In January, it announced its intention to develop a vaccine — called NVX-CoV2373 — to treat coronavirus. Novavax has a market cap of $9.15 billion and does not pay a dividend. Its stock trades at 34.13 times forward earnings and has a high price-to-sales ratio of 238.50. As of its most recent quarter, the company has $237.36 million in total cash and $331.87 million in total debt. Novavax has a negative 5-year revenue growth rate of -9.45% but a better 3-year revenue growth rate of 6.72%.

Vaxart (VXRT) is another biotech company in the race for a coronavirus vaccine. Founded in 2004 and based in South San Francisco, the clinical-stage company discovers, develops, and commercializes orally administered recumbent vaccines to treat infected patients around the world. This past January, Vaxart announced the development of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate: a tablet vaccine. Its other candidates include influenza, norovirus, and RSV vaccines.The company has a market cap of $992.76 million and does not pay a dividend. Its stock has a high price-to-sales ratio of 44.56 and a price-to-book ratio of 32.74. As of its most recent quarter, Vaxart has $29.86 million in total cash and $2.13 million in total debt. The company faces a negative 5-year revenue growth rate of -29.71% but enjoys a 3-year revenue growth rate of 1.69%.

Finally, you might also consider Sorrento (SRNE), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that focuses on developing immunotherapies for cancers, autoimmune, inflammatory, and neurodegenerative diseases. The company has teamed up with Mount Sinai Health System to develop an antibody therapy — named COVI-SHIELD — to target the COVID-19 infection. This product would deliver three antibodies that would serve as a “protective shield” against the virus. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Diego, Sorrento has a market cap of $2.05 billion and does not pay a dividend. It trades at 1.71 times forward earnings. Its stock has a high price-to-sales ratio of 46.05 and a price-to-book ratio of 20.28. As of its most recent quarter, the company has $21.9 million in total cash and $255.01 million in total debt. Sorrento enjoys a 5-year revenue growth rate of 52.39% and an even better 3-year revenue growth rate of 56.81%.

Let’s hope we get a vaccine and cure soon.

Disclosure: Author owns MRNA.