Major Short Selling Changes in Biotech (AMGN, BIIB, GILD, CELG, GENZ, GERN, DNDN, HGSI, AMLN, CTIC)
We have now seen the changes in short selling in biotech stocks via the Mid-March short interest report from NASDAQ. This marks the changes seen at the March 15, 2010 settlement date versus a prior February 26 settlement date. We took a look at Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN), Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD), Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG), Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ: GENZ), Geron Corporation (NASDAQ: GERN), Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN), Human Genome Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI), and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN). We even included the wild Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) to see what the shorts were betting on there.
There were some rather large changes both up and down. Again, the change reflects the March 15 settlement date versus a prior date of February 26:
Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) 17,671,805 shares versus 15,540,667, a gain of 13.7%.
Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) 7,515,772 shares versus 8,782,814, a drop of -14.4%.
Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) 18,665,961 shares versus 19,560,911, a drop of -4.6%.
Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) 9,202,685 shares versus 10,310,529 shares, a drop of -10.7%.
Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ: GENZ) 6,298,352 shares versus 7,136,187 shares for a drop of -11.7%.
Geron Corporation (NASDAQ: GERN) 13,311,471 shares versus 13,767,882%, a drop of -3.3%.
Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) 12,936,722 shares versus 10,035,975 shares for a gain of 28.9%. This is one of the larger short interest increases, although some of this may be related to options bets ahead of a pending FDA decision on PROVENGE.
Human Genome Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) 17,100,782 shares versus 17,571,094, a drop of -2.7%.
Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) 13,564,481 shares versus 15,934,384, a drop of -14.9%.
Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) is not one we normally cover but it is such a large trader and has such a large short interest that we wanted to show the data: 89,195,357 shares versus 85,091,832 shares, a gain of 4.8%. No wonder there was such a recovery after it reopened after bad FDA news this week.
JON C. OGG
March 25, 2010
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