pharmaceuticals

We’re waist-deep into the earnings season, and many companies have already filed. The U.S. biotech firm Celgene Corp (NASDAQ: CELG) has filed as well, and its reported earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations. Here are some takeaways from the report. Earnings Overview Revenues...

In last week’s Benzinga article on InterMune (NASDAQ: ITMN), some of the warning signs for the overall stock market were highlighted. Those warnings became more than just warnings last week, as the market took some significant hits. Last Thursday’s 300-plus drop on the Dow Jones...

Merck (NYSE: MRK) is a blue chip "Big Pharma" stock that is up for the last week, month, quarter, six months and year of market action. For 2014, Merck has risen by nearly 19 percent. There are three reasons for long-term investors to buy shares of Merck in expectation that the share...

The health care sector has been on fire in 2014, as investors continue to bet on the development of new drugs and increased need for medical services. On Tuesday, the pharmaceuticals industry received a vote of confidence, after both Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) and Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK)...

Short interest can be a very telling component of investor and trader sentiment toward a stock. High or rising short interest typically means that investors and traders believe a stock is going to drop or continue a current decline further. However, high short interest can also be viewed as a...

Earnings season is in full effect with some of the big hitters already hitting the tape. This last week has given us results from the likes of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Apple (NASDQ: AAPL). On Wednesday morning one of biotechs big hitters, Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB...

Mixed news came out this week on research into Alzheimer's.   New studies suggest the rate of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia is dropping in the United States and other developed countries. Meanwhile, Big Pharma's years-long battle to find a treatment, if not a cure,...

The Nasdaq Composite got hammered Tuesday. The Russell was also slammed pretty hard. The Russell, in particular, broke a key trendline of support, which implies more selling to come. And if you’ve been in the market this year then Tuesday's price action reminds you of March and April...

It seems as if mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare sector has become commonplace, with a lot of biotech companies being main targets. Not a week goes by without multiple discussions about the battle between Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) and Allergan(NYSE: AGN). Last week brought...

Ubiquitous social media site Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) priced its much-anticipated IPO on November 7, 2013. The stock was subsequently subject to a lockup period for the next six months, during which certain early investors were prohibited from selling their shares. The lockup expired on May 6,...

Pharmaceutical stocks are excellent holdings in times of a downturn. Health care is the largest component of the American economy, about one-sixth the gross domestic product. For income, value, and growth investors, respectively, there are GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), and...

When it comes to the bio-tech, pharma and therapeutic sectors, the results from drug trials and the results from FDA evaluations can make or break stocks. On many occasions, the percentage leader and loser boards are littered with companies from these sectors that either released positive or...

Walgreens (NYSE: WAG), the nation's largest drug store chain, says it will close 76 of its stores during the second half of fiscal 2014 as a cost-cutting measure, following a weaker-than-expected second quarter earnings report. The company announced its second quarter net earnings at $754...

U.S. stocks were mixed as investors continue to follow the standoff in Ukraine and digested February's jobs report which indicated that harsh winter weather could be the culprit behind weakness seen in recent economic data reports. The S&P 500 trading at new all time highs at 1,883.57 but...