Yahoo Finance Among Biotechnology ETFs, XBI Dominated the 1st Week of April
Weekly Biotech Roundup: XBI Dominated among Biotech ETFs
XBI dominated week ended April 8, 2016
Biotechnology ETFs had a good first week of April. Most of the major biotechnology ETFs ended positively. They outperformed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which fell 1.2% for the week. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) rose the most at 5%. It was followed by the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) that rose 3.4%. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) rose 1.2%, and the iShares US Medical Devices ETF (IHI) had the lowest growth of 0.8%.
The above chart shows the performance of some biotechnology ETFs at various time intervals compared to SPY.
Stocks that outperformed in the week
Relypsa (RLYP) was the top performer for the week ended April 8, 2016. It rose 69% on the back of Wall Street talk of a possible takeover. In its portfolio, Relypsa has Veltassa, a drug approved by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) for the treatment of hyperkalemia. Relypsa reported a net loss of $178.7 million, or $4.39 per share, for 2015.
Relypsa closed at $22.48 and was trading above its 100-day and 20-day moving averages. Despite the stock rising 69% during the week, it has still fallen 20% year-to-date. The relative strength index of the stock is 72. That shows the stock has temporarily moved into overbought territory. The book value of the stock is $4.40 per share. With its current price, it’s trading at a PBV (price-to-book value) of 5.1x. It has a weight of ~0.15% in IBB’s portfolio.
The other stocks that rose significantly were Raptor Pharmaceutical (RPTP) and Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT). They rose 20.6% and 19.6%, respectively, for the week ended April 8, 2016.
In the next part of the series, let’s look at Edwards Lifesciences (EW). It was the biggest gainer among large-caps among the biotechnology ETFs.
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