Ionis Pharmaceuticals Initiates Phase 2 Study, Trades above 100-Day Moving Average on December 17
Jack Frost Nips XBI's Nose, Large- and Mid-Caps Feel the Burn
Moving averages of XBI holdings
The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) has 101 stocks in its portfolio. As of December 17, 2015, 49% of these stocks were trading above their 20-day moving averages while 51% of the stocks were trading above their 50-day moving averages and 33% of the stocks were trading above their 100-day moving averages.
Other stocks that trading above their 100-day moving averages included Dyax Corporation (DYAX), Prothena Corporation (PRTA), and Biogen (BIIB), which gave returns of -0.75%, -6.15%, and -0.7%.
The graph below reflects different moving averages of XBI’s holdings.
IONS initiates Phase 2 study of ISIS-TTR Rx
Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS), a company formerly known as ISIS Pharmaceuticals (ISIS), fell by -1.95% on December 17, 2015, despite the company’s announcement of the initiation of Phase 2 study of its latest drug, ISIS-TTR Rx. According to the press release, Ionis would begin “an investigator-sponsored, open-label Phase 2 study evaluating ISIS-TTRRx in patients with wild-type transthyretin amyloidosis (wt-TTR amyloidosis, previously referred to as senile systemic amyloidosis, or SSA).”
Ionis specified that “this Phase 2 study will be conducted by Dr. Rodney Falk, the director of the Cardiac Amyloidosis Program and a cardiovascular medicine specialist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.”
Stock activity
IONS (formerly ISIS) closed at $58.20 on December 17 and was trading above its 100-day moving average. However, it was trading below 20-day moving averages. YTD (year-to-date), IONS has given a return of approximately -5.8%.
Ionis Pharmaceuticals has an RSI (relative strength index) of 54, which indicates that the stock is neither overbought nor oversold. It clocked a trading volume of approximately 1.1 million shares per day, compared to its five-day average trading volume of approximately 1.1 million shares per day.
IONS has a book value of $2.04 per share. With its current price, the stock is trading at a PBV (price-to-book value) of 28.5x. IONS has a weight of approximately 1.3% in XBI’s portfolio.
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