It's been an exciting year so far for biotech acquisitions:�Perrigo�made a surprising move for Elan, AstraZeneca has been boosting its pipeline with a series of purchases, and Amgen's recent buyout of oncology specialist�Onyx�revived investor enthusiasm in the second biggest biotech company in the world. And it doesn't look like this trend is going to stop any time soon.
At the end of last week, a Bloomberg article revealed that Shire (NASDAQ: SHPG ) and pharmaceutical giant Sanofi� (NYSE: SNY ) may be circling ViroPharma� (NASDAQ: VPHM ) . The the following video, from The Motley Fool's health care show Market Checkup, analysts David Williamson and Max Macaluso take a close look at ViroPharma and discuss the recent interest in this small biotech company.
Stocks for a Longer Time Horizon
It's no secret that biotech stocks have been soaring recently, but the best investment strategy is to pick great companies and stick with them for the long term. The Motley Fool's free report "3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich" not only shares stocks that could help you build long-term wealth, but also winning strategies that every investor should know.�Click here�to grab your free copy today.
Top 5 Managed Healthcare Stocks To Buy For 2015: ProShares UltraShort S&P500 (SDS)
ProShares UltraShort S&P500 (the Fund), formerly UltraShort S&P500 ProShares, seeks daily investment results that correspond to twice the inverse daily performance of the S&P 500 Index. The S&P 500 Index is a measure of large-cap United States stock market performance. The S&P 500 Index is a capitalization-weighted index of 500 United States operating companies and real estate investment trusts (REITs) selected by an S&P committee through a non-mechanical process that factors criteria, such as liquidity, price, market capitalization, financial viability and public float.
The S&P 500 Index is a price return index. Reconstitution of the Index occurs both on a quarterly and on an ongoing basis. The Fund takes positions in securities and/or financial instruments that, in combination, should have similar daily return characteristics as 200% of the daily return of the index. The Fund�� investment advisor is ProShare Advisors LLC.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
The so-called Hindenburg Omen predicting a major market crash is increasingly popping into the headlines; but regardless of whether or not you believe in the prophecy,�short ETFs like ProShares UltraShort S&P500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SDS), ProShares Short Dow30 ETF (NYSEARCA: DOG) and�ProShares UltraShort QQQ ETF (NYSEARCA: QID) can off you some protection or insurance. We have also periodically added short ETFs to our�SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity (SCN EO) portfolio as a�hedge against short-term�market downturns or�short-term trend reversals and right now, we have the ProShares UltraShort S&P500 ETF in our portfolio.
Top Long Term Stocks To Buy Right Now: Zogenix Inc (ZGNX)
Zogenix, Inc. (Zogenix), incorporated on May 11, 2006, is a pharmaceutical company commercializing and developing products for the treatment of central nervous system disorders and pain. The Company�� product Sumavel DosePro offers needle-free subcutaneous administration of sumatriptan for the treatment of migraine and cluster headache in a pre-filled, single-use delivery system. Its lead product candidate, Zohydro (hydrocodone bitartrate, formerly ZX002) is a 12-hour extended-release formulation of hydrocodone without acetaminophen for the treatment of chronic pain requiring opioid therapy. It completed Phase 3 development of Zohydro in 2011. Its second DosePro investigational product candidate, Relday, is a injectable formulation of risperidone for the treatment of schizophrenia. Sumavel DosePro and Zohydro are used for the treatment options available to patients and physicians in the United States. Sumavel DosePro may serve as a treatment alternative to oral and nasal triptans and offers administration when compared to traditional, needle-based sumatriptan injection. In May, 2012, it submitted a New Drug Application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The Company�� collaboration with Astellas has been terminated on March 31, 2012. Sumavel DosePro is a pre-filled, single-use disposable, needle-free drug delivery system that subcutaneously delivers 6 mg of sumatriptan in 0.5 mL of sterile liquid. Sumavel DosePro is designed to be portable, intuitive and easy-to-use. To use, the patient simply snaps off a plastic tip, flips back a lever and presses the end of the delivery system to the skin of the abdomen or thigh. Under the force of a small amount of compressed nitrogen gas, the liquid form of sumatriptan is expelled out of the device as a thin jet of medication, which pierces the skin and selectively deposits into the subcutaneous tissue.
Zogenix competes with GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca PLC, Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., ! Inc., Pfizer Inc., Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc., MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Alpharma Inc., Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc., King Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Mallinckrodt Inc., Purdue Pharma L.P., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, Owen Mumford Ltd., Ypsomed, Sandoz Inc., Bioject Inc. and Antares Pharma Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sean Williams]
What: Shares of Zogenix (NASDAQ: ZGNX ) , a biopharmaceutical company developing therapies to treat central nervous system disorders and pain, jumped as much as 15% after updating the status of its severe pain medication Zohydro ER in Massachusetts.
- [By Leo Sun]
With 2014 drawing to a close, biotech investors are probably wondering which stocks to stuff in their stockings for next year. While there are plenty of promising biotech stocks to choose from, we should also take note of three high-risk, low-growth biotech stocks that investors might consider avoiding:�Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO ) , VIVUS (NASDAQ: VVUS ) , and Zogenix (NASDAQ: ZGNX ) .
Top Long Term Stocks To Buy Right Now: Huron Consulting Group Inc.(HURN)
Huron Consulting Group Inc. provides operational and financial consulting services in the United States. Its Health and Education Consulting segment develops and implements solutions to help clients address financial management, strategy, operational and organizational effectiveness, research administration, and regulatory compliance; and offers consulting services related to organization performance improvement, revenue cycle improvement, turnarounds, merger or affiliation strategies, labor productivity, non-labor cost management, information technology, patient flow improvement, physician practice management, interim management, clinical quality and medical management, and governance and board development to hospitals, health systems, physicians, managed care organizations, academic medical centers, colleges, universities, and pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers. The company?s Legal Consulting segment provides strategic and management consulting, cost managem ent, and technology and information management, including matter management, records, document review, and discovery services to assist law departments and law firms. This segment also offers V3locity solution, which delivers streamlined e-discovery process; and IMPACT solution that delivers sustainable cost reductions. Its Financial Consulting segment assists corporations with accounting and financial reporting matters, and provides financial analysis in restructuring and turnaround situations, as well as consults with companies in the areas of corporate governance, Sarbanes Oxley compliance, and internal audit. Huron Consulting Group Inc. serves various industries, including healthcare, education, professional services, pharmaceutical, technology, transportation services, telecommunications, financial services, electronics, consumer products, governmental, energy and utilities, and industrial manufacturing. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Chicago, I llinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Benjamin Shepherd] The US health care industry is among the heaviest regulated in the nation. Most health care-related companies must answer to federal, state and, in many cases, local regulators.
That regulatory burden will only grow more complex, as myriad new rules under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” come into effect over the next few months. In just 22 days, the first insurance exchanges are supposed to come online. On January 1, the individual mandate and changes in coverage standards become effective.
Many health care businesses and organizations were dragging their feet in complying with Obamacare’s provisions, waiting to see how the Supreme Court would come down on the law. The court didn’t rule on Obamacare until June 2012, a decision in which it upheld the law almost in its entirety.
Given that delayed decision, a study conducted by the Government Accountability Office this past June found that only 44 percent of key activities required for full compliance had been completed, particularly where health insurance exchanges were concerned.
As a result, there’s a massive scramble underway to achieve minimum compliance levels with the law. But there’s a paucity of workers with the requisite knowledge of federal and insurance regulations required to help companies and state governments navigate the labyrinth of regulations.
That’s creating a lot of work for consultancies such as Huron Consulting Group (NSDQ: HURN), which focuses almost exclusively on the health care sector.
While the company also works in the legal, financial, education and life sciences arenas, it primarily helps hospitals, health systems and physician groups reduce costs, maximize reimbursements from both federal and private insurers and transition towards the value-based care mandated under Obamacare. In future years, reimbursements will transition towards rewarding health care organizations tha
Top Long Term Stocks To Buy Right Now: Corelogic Inc (CLGX)
CoreLogic, Inc. (CoreLogic),incorporated on October 13, 2009, is a provider of property information, analytics and services provider in the United States of America and Australia. The Company provides detailed coverage of property, mortgages and other encumbrances, consumer credit, tenancy, location, hazard risk and related performance information. The markets the Company serves include real estate and mortgage finances, insurance, capital markets and government. The Company offers its customers databases of public, contributory data covering real property and mortgages information, judgments and liens, parcel and geospatial data, criminal background records, national coverage eviction information, non-prime lending records, credit information, and tax information, among other data types. It serves its customers' needs for mortgage and automotive credit reporting, property tax, property valuation, flood plain location determination and other geospatial data, data, analytics and related services. The Company operates in three segments: data and analytics, mortgage origination services and asset management and processing solutions.
Data and Analytics
The Company's data and analytics segment offers access to data assets including real estate information, such as property characteristic information, mortgage information, collateral information, and images of publicly recorded documents relating to real property, mortgage-backed securities information, criminal and eviction records, employment verification, flood and hazard information and under-banked credit information. The Company licenses its data directly to its customers and provide its customers with analytical products and services for risk management, collateral assessment and fraud prediction. The Company also provides consumer screening and risks management for the multi-family housing and under-banked credit services industries. The Company's primary customers are commercial banks, mortgage lenders and brokers, inves! tment banks, fixed-income investors, real estate agents, property and casualty insurance companies, title insurance companies, property management companies and government-sponsored enterprises.
The Company is a provider of fraud detection, collateral and mortgages performance analytics and real estate and mortgage-backed securities information. The Company uses its data to link property location and characteristics , real estate transactions and consumer and loans information to provide useful insights and analysis for its customers. The Company's customers span many industries, including mortgage lending, government, capital markets, consumer-direct, property and casualty insurance, direct marketing, utilities and retail. The Company obtains, normalizes and aggregates real estate property and loans data and make such data available to its customers with a standard format over the Web or in bulk data form. In addition, the Company offers a number of other services that help its customers make risk assessments, determine property values and track market performance. The Company offers its customers a host of property valuation services in an effort to assist them in assessing their risk of loss with alternative forms of property valuations, depending upon their needs and regulatory requirements. These include, among others, automated valuation models collateral risk scores, appraisal review services and valuation reconciliation services.
The Company provides solutions designed to assist its customers in detecting and preventing mortgage fraud and managing risk. The Company also provides advisory services that allow holders of mortgage-backed securities, loan and real property portfolios to gain insight on the value, quality and attributes of those assets. The Company provides document retrieval, custom fulfillment, advisory and other services that allows its customers to benefit from its specialists and their knowledge of its data to provide project-based or client-customized r! eports. T! he Company is a provider of screening and risks management services for the multi-family housing industry. The Company conducts applicant screening and generate consumer reports containing information that may includes landlord-tenant court records, lease and payment performance history, credit history and criminal records history primarily for residential property managers and owners throughout the United States.
The Company is a provider of natural hazard risk management and information solutions with premium locational accuracy and spatial datasets. The Company also offers specialized data and analytical models including Wildfire Risk Score, Coastal Risk Score, Flood Risk Score, Earthquake and Fire Protection Class. The Company's analytics and hazard data are delivered to customers through multiple methods including the RiskMeter Online platform, a software as a service platform targeted to insurance industry participants. The Company is a provider of credit reports for under-banked consumer and specialty borrowers. The Company's customers range in size from single proprietorships to major credit card issuers. The Company is a provider of real estate listing software systems.
Mortgage Origination Services
The Company provides loan origination and closing-related services and solutions to mortgages originators, including tax services and flood and data services. The segment's primary customers are national mortgage lenders and servicers, but the Company also serves regional mortgage lenders and brokers, credit unions, commercial banks, government agencies and property and casualty insurance companies.
The Company provides property tax services in the United States. The Company procures and aggregates property taxes information from over 20,000 taxing authorities. The Company uses this information to advise mortgage originators and servicers of the property taxes payment status on their loans and to monitor that status for the life of the loans. Th! e Company! also may indemnify mortgage lenders against losses for any failure to make transfers to taxing authorities.
The Company provides flood zone determinations in the United States. The Company typically furnishes a mortgage originator or servicer with a report as to whether a property lies within a governmentally delineated flood hazard area and then monitor the property for flood hazard status changes for as long as the loan is active.
The Company provides credit services in the United States mortgage and transportation markets, with solutions that helps its customers meet their lending, leasing and other consumer credit automation needs. The Company provides cloud computing-based lending solutions to the financial services market through a comprehensive suite of enterprise lending automation solutions.
Asset Management and Processing Solutions
The Company provides analytical and outsourcing services primarily relating to defaulting and foreclosed mortgages loans to mortgage servicers, financial institutions, government and governmental-sponsored enterprises and other companies. The Company inspects , preserves, maintain and , where required, registers vacant properties with local authorities on behalf of its mortgage servicer customers.
The Company through its business processing outsourcing (BPO) offers mortgage servicers and investors a alternative to traditional appraisals. The Company provides outsourcing services to residential mortgage servicers. The Company's processing competencies provide the servicers operational, audit and quality control services throughout the default cycle, from collections to foreclosure. The Company provides property recovery services, including eviction logistics. The Company values the asset using one or more of its full range of valuation products. The Company also offers marketing and closing services. The Company provides mortgage servicers with a suite of hosted default management servicing applicatio! ns. The C! ompany's component-based solution provides modules for loss mitigation, foreclosure, bankruptcy, collateral valuations, property preservation, REO asset management and claims processing.
The Company competes with Equifax Inc., Lexis-Nexis, Lender Processing Services, Inc, TransUnion Corp., Verisk Analytics, Safeguard Properties, Clear-Capital.com, Inc, and Experian plc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Maxfield]
We were reminded of this in a recent report on the state of the foreclosure market published by data analytics firm CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX ) . At the same time, however, we were also reminded of how much further we still have to go before the crisis is fully and finally behind us. What follows, in turn, are the five most revealing numbers that CoreLogic uncovered in its report.
- [By DAILYFINANCE]
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images WASHINGTON -- Average U.S. rates for fixed mortgages fell this week as the latest data continued to indicate a pause in the housing market's recovery. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate for the 30-year loan declined to 4.23 percent from 4.32 percent last week. The average for the 15-year loan slipped to 3.33 percent from 3.40 percent. Mortgage rates have risen about a full percentage point since hitting record lows roughly a year ago. The increase was driven by speculation that the Federal Reserve would reduce its $85 billion a month in bond purchases. Saying the economy was gaining strength, the Fed pushed ahead last week with a plan to reduce the bond purchases, which have kept long-term interest rates low. Data released Tuesday by real estate specialist CoreLogic (CLGX) showed that U.S. home prices slipped from November to December, and the year-over-year increase slowed, likely a result of weaker sales at the end of last year. The December decline was the third straight month-to-month drop. Home prices had risen for eight straight months through September. For all of 2013, prices rose a healthy 11 percent. The Commerce Department reported Monday that U.S. construction spending rose modestly in December, slowing from healthy gains a month earlier. Most economists expect home sales and prices to keep rising this year, but at a slower pace. They forecast that both will likely rise around 5 percent, down from double-digit gains in 2013. Steady job gains are putting more people to work and enabling them to buy a home. And rising prices should encourage more owners to sell their homes. A larger supply of available homes would likely boost sales.
No comments:
Post a Comment