February 14, 2022 5:21pm

Weakness from geopolitical headlines, Fed’s credibility and yet another earnings’ slip

Pre-open Indications: 1 HIT

RegMed/Cell and Gene Therapy Earnings Scorecard Q4/21 and FY21 Results … https://www.regmedinvestors.com/articles/11628

If I have learned one thing as a former research analyst, venture and public fund investor now a journalist; it is that your life and your bank account are largely tied to your knowledge of price movements and questioning pricing targets.

Who else is tracking a broad grouping of cell and gene therapy equities – with facts supported by real numbers?

The Dow closed DOWN -171.89 points (-0.49%); the S&P closed DOWN -16.97 points (-0.38%) while the Nasdaq closed DOWN -0.23 points (-0.00%)

 

Henry’omics:

Indexes retreated on Monday as investors evaluated concerns about the Fed’s plan for interest rate hikes and tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

The Cboe Volatility Index a.k.a., the fear gauge spiked to near its session highs in afternoon trading, briefly hovering around 31, ended the session above 28 points.

 

RegMed Investors’ (RMi) pre-open: “the new year and February have been painful, and now agonizing Q4/FY21 earnings. Uncertainty rules, this is not a good time to be adding risk exposure” … https://www.regmedinvestors.com/articles/12299

 

RegMed/Stem/Cell and Gene therapy’s 35 covered equities’ Advance/Decline (A/D) lines: what happened …

  • Monday opened negative at 11 up/17 downs, 6 flats and 1 acquired, stayed negative at the mid-day at 7/26, 1 flat and 1 acquired, ending with a negative close of 4/28, 2 flats and 1 acquired;
  • Friday opened positive at 17 up/14 downs, 3 flats and 1 acquired, turned negative at the mid-day at 14/20 and 1 acquired, ending with a negative close of 3/32 and 1 acquired;

 

Pre-open indications: 1 Hit < Biostage (BSTG -$0.00)>

 

The Biostage (BSTG) Chronicles: shows how the “pimp/pump and promote” works with the shares trading flat with 1,899 shares traded after

Friday’s -$0.02 with 1,739 shares traded after Thursday’s +$0.60 with 2,841 shares traded after Wednesday’s down -$0.61 (was as low as -$1.09) with 4,030 shares traded after Tuesday’s +$0.05 with 1,293 shares traded after Monday’s +$0.55 with 2,311 shares traded,

  • The previous Friday’s +$0.22 with 305 shares traded, Thursday’s flat ($0.00) with 3 shares traded, Wednesday’s down -$0.53 with 502 shares traded, Tuesday’s +$0.40 with 1,088 shares after Monday’s 11 shares traded after Friday’s +$0.05 with 3,225 shares traded after Thursday’s +$0.24 with 10,073 - double the mornings 5,030 shares traded after last Wednesday’s diving to -$0.00 with 7,796 shares trading after appreciating +$0.35 (after dropping mid-day -$0.07 – such sarcasm after miraculous jump) and the previous Tuesday’s +$0.31 with 2,794 shares traded.

 

Key Metrics:

  • Monday - Sector volume was LOW with 2 of the 4-upside having higher than the 3-month average volume with LOW volume of 5 of 28-downside having higher than the 3-month average volume;
  • Friday - Sector volume was LOW with 2 of the 3-upside having higher than the 3-month average volume with LOW volume of 3 of 32-downside having higher than the 3-month average volume

The iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology (IBB) and the SPDR S&P ETF (XBI) indicators:

  • Monday  the IBB closed down -1.84% and XBI closed down -1.65%
  • Friday the IBB closed down -1.31% and XBI closed down -1.07%

The CBOE Volatility Index (VVIX: INDEX) tracked:

  • Monday was up +0.97 points or +3.55% at 28.33
  • Friday was up +3.45 points or +14.43% at 27.36

 

Jumping with share pricing momentum (4 of 4):

  • Vericel (VCEL +$0.32),
  • Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR +$0.23),
  • uniQure NV (QURE +$0.06),
  • Caladrius Biosciences (CLBS +$0.0005),

Hammered in today’s market (10 of 28):

  • ReNeuron (RENE.L -$3.00 after Friday’s +$7.00),
  • Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY -$2.10),
  • Ultragenyx (RARE -$1.66 after Friday’s +$1.51),
  • BioLife Solutions (BLFS -$1.41 after Friday’s -$1.37),
  • Fate Therapeutics (FATE -$1.41),
  • Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA -$1.11 after Friday’s -$3.36),
  • CRISPR Therapeutic (CRSP -$0.79 after Friday’s -$2.50),
  • Sage Therapeutics (SAGE -$0.75 after Friday’s -$0.35),
  • Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT -$0.35),
  • Editas Medicine (EDIT -$0.34 after Friday’s -$1.16),

Closing Flat:

  • 2 – Regenxbio (RGNX), Biostage (BSTG) and 1 - Stemline Therapeutics (STML) – acquired

 

February, Q1/2022:

  • Monday (2/14) closed negative with 4 incliners, 28 decliners, 2 flats and 1 acquired
  • Friday closed negative with 3 incliner, 32 decliners and 1 acquired

 

The BOTTOM LINE: The sector struggled and felt the pain yet again following alternate session reverses as share pricings seemed to have settled lower and lower as I had stated “the algorithms were p to pitching” while headlines elevated the risk parameters.

Ongoing concerns over aggressive policy from the Fed in addition to the simmering geopolitical tensions have contributed to recent market volatility hammering the risks of the cell and gene therapy with an earnings (AGTC) having a finger on the scale.

The race to the weekend …

Monday closed down with just a few ups … Vericel (VCEL), Voyager therapeutics (VYGR), uniQure NV (QURE) and Caladrius Biosciences (CLBS) while the downs were numbered at 28.

Friday’s “sprinters” were ReNeuron (RENE.L), Ultragenyx (RARE) and Bellicum Pharmaceuticals (BLCM) while losers were Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY) BioLife Solutions (BLFS), CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP), Chinook therapeutics (KDNY) and AxoGen (AXGN).

Investors will be watching earnings reports this week; Q4 and end-of-year earnings are about to be made aware of” more than even I thought.          

  • AxoGen AXGN) –Tuesday, 2/22
  • Vericel (VCEL) –Thursday, 2/24,
  • MiMedx (MDXG), Monday, 2/28

Algorithms, hedge funds and traders continue to punish and … then push the cell and gene therapy stocks as valuations “creep” up.

WHY do I keep analyzing Biostage (BSTG): I WAS there to experience the lack of investor prerogatives and saw the decay of transparency and more; it takes courage, resolve and patience to stay the course of asking the questions without response!

Who is defining the metrics for investors and keeping you notified of the sector and market fluctuations?  What I provide is a trusted source of share pricing intelligence – it’s more than opinion, I deal in the facts and numbers that back them up.

 

Opinions expressed are those of the author and are subject to change, and not intended to be a forecast of future events, a guarantee of future results, nor investment advice.

Whether information or intelligence is good, bad or somewhere in between; I put into context what is relevant and useful for investors.  All investments are subject to risks. Investors should consider investment objectives.

Henry McCusker, the editor and publisher of RegMed Investors does not hold or have positions in securities referred to in this publication.

Regulation Analyst Certification (Reg AC): The research analyst primarily responsible for the content of this report certifies the following under Reg AC: I hereby certify that all views expressed in this report accurately reflect my personal views about the subject company or companies and its or their securities. I also certify that no part of my compensation was, is or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this report.