The company seems to be very realistic about what it has to do and has stayed on target with its plans, incl. in Europe where iclusig is still being sold in 15 countries so it bodes well for keeping to its plans in the U.S.
Layoffs and other self-imposed restrictions should keep it profitable while it focuses on its core business -- management sounds smart.
The hit it has taken was excessive for the situation, and there is naked shorting going on which I knew about and linked the Monday numbers but the magnitude that was added Tues-Wed. took me by surprise as it did most retail buyers.
Short interest up another 34% Wed., had been up 66% already Monday.
There has to be short covering, they have an avg. of only 3 days to do it but hedgies do push the limits and kept shorting more on Tues. and Wed. A whopping just shy of 85% of the stock is owned by institutions, another 3% by insiders.
Almost 1/4 of the shares are now short.
Bad as Wed. was, price recovered from lows
-- the hedges could've taken it all the way down but chose not to IMO b/c they want to take it back to the mid-upper 5's to have enough strength to keep playing with it.
Ariad Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
$ 4.54
ARIA
-0.14
Daily Short Sale Volume
view
Short Interest (Shares Short)
35,908,700
Days To Cover (Short Interest Ratio)
3.1
Short Percent of Float
22.71 %
Short Interest - Prior
26,777,600
Short % Increase / Decrease
34.10
Daily Naked Short Selling List
view
Short Squeeze Ranking™
view
% From 52-Wk High ($ 24.59 )
-81.54%
% From 52-Wk Low ($ 2.15 )
111.16%
% From 200-Day MA ($ 16.22 )
-72.01%
% From 50-Day MA ($ 8.07 )
-43.74%
Price % Change (52-Week)
-78.91%
Shares Float
158,150,000
% Owned by Insiders
3.09%
% Owned by Institutions
84.60%
Market Cap.
$ 868,000,000
Trading Volume - Today
42,330,839
Trading Volume - Average
11,606,800
Trading Volume - Today vs. Average
364.71%
If we re-read the situation and co's take from Nov. 13th it's not nearly as bad as the current price indicates and there's a little over a week to ASH where even if nothing new is presented, the company showing a determined presence might give this a bounce to 7-8+ where it could end the year until positive news takes it over 10.
By Robert Weisman
| Globe Staff
November 13, 2013
Troubled biotech Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., posting a deeper third-quarter loss, on Tuesday unveiled a plan to save cash and narrow its drug development focus after halting sales of a leukemia treatment in the United States last month because of toxic side effects.
But in a conference call with securities analysts, executives at the Cambridge company couldn’t predict when they might be able to resume selling Iclusig, which treats chronic myeloid leukemia. That will depend on negotiations with the Food and Drug Administration to revise the drug’s label — almost certainly reducing the eligible patient population — and taking other steps to warn doctors and patients of the risk of blood clots and heart problems.
“We don’t know when Iclusig will be back on the market,” Ariad chief executive Harvey J. Berger said in an interview. “[But] we will come through this stronger and as a better company, and Iclusig will prevail in Europe and, hopefully, in the US as well.”
(It did: I like how Berger was so certain about that.)
Ariad’s plan, including the previously disclosed 160 layoffs — about 40 percent of its workforce — seeks to pare spending on operations this year to $240 million to $245 million, compared with a $245 million to $255 million range earlier projected. The aim is to extend the company’s cash reserves through mid-2015, while designating a new clinical program by the second half of next year to produce another cancer-fighting medicine.
Related
11/1: Ariad Pharmaceuticals halts US sales of key drug
“Rather than work on several development programs in parallel, as we did before the reduction in force, we’re focusing the entire drug development staff on a single, very exciting target for solid tumors,” Berger said. But he declined to specify the compound Ariad scientists are investigating, or the specific type of cancer they will target.
Under its “strategic path forward,” Ariad is budgeting conservatively without assuming Iclusig will be back on the US market in the next 18 to 20 months, executives said. But the company is hoping American sales of the drug can restart much sooner.
Ariad, meanwhile, plans to move forward with selling Iclusig in 15 countries in Europe, where the drug has been approved and remains on the market. And despite an FDA hold on enrolling new patients in clinical trials due to the increased safety risks identified in recent weeks, the company plans eventual clinical development of the drug to treat other forms of leukemia, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and other cancers.
Two days to go up from the 3's, two days to go down, Friday and Monday we should see the bounce start.
Not to say that after it recovers the hedgies won't do this again,
at least until Dec. 7th.
-- I'm seeing lots of unsubstantiated speculation this way and that regarding price and prospects, no data and mostly doom and gloom --
IMO the data and company CEO Berger's plans and track record give us a pretty decent road map.
GL and HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE.
We must all find what we have to be thankful for and look forward
to continued improving days to come for this company and stock.
