2 Drug Stocks Moving in Opposite Directions Today
PHAS has more than quadrupled in 2019
Near the bottom of the Nasdaq this morning is Zogenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZGNX), down 24.8% to trade at $38.97, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused to review the drugmaker's marketing application for its seizure medicine. Guggenheimresponded by downgrading the stock to "neutral" from "buy" while slashing its price target to $40 from $70. Three other brokerage firms issued price-target cuts as well, including to $58 from $71 at Mizuho, which called the FDA decision "unexpected."
This is shaping up to be Zogenix stock's worst day in years. The drop breaks ZGNX out of its channel of higher highs and lows that started from its Christmas Eve bottom near $33. And more bear notes could pressure the shares even lower, since all eight of the brokerages in coverage of the security rated it a "strong buy" coming into today, while its consensus 12-month price target of $61.90 is now a more than 60% premium to its current perch.
On the other end of the spectrum is PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PHAS), up 23.2% to trade at $15.48, and one of the best stocks on the Nasdaq this morning. Powering the surge today is the FDA granting "breakthrough therapy" status to the company's experimental antiplatelet activity drug PB2452. In response, Stifel hiked its price target to $18 from $14, uncharted territory for the stock, with the October initial public offering (IPO) sitting all the way down at $5.
In 2019 alone, PhaseBio stock has now more than quadrupled thanks to a round of encouraging data from PB2452. Analysts are already sold on the red-hot biotech name. All four in coverage rate it a "buy" or better, and the average 12-month price target sits right at $18.