The most horrible U.S. drought in half a century is weakening the country’s corn crop, but it’s a fruitful opportunity for developers of genetically modified crops. Agricultural biotechnology companies have been spending big amount of dollars into developing plants that can resist the impacts of an extended dry spell. Monsanto Co., based in St. Louis, has been granted regulatory approval for DroughtGard, which is a corn variety that includes the first genetically customized trait for drought resistance.
Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) gained on Friday as the delay of VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS)’s Qsiva could suggest that Belviq, a competing drug from Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. will be granted an approval first in the E.U.
Shares of this company traded up 3.14% during trading on Friday, hitting $9.26. The stock has a 52 weeks low of $1.23 and a 52 weeks high of $13.50. The company has a market cap of $1.96 billion. The P/S ratio is 66.03 and P/B ratio 18.46. The beta value is 0.25. ARNA’s RSI amounts to 53.12.
While trading at volume higher than average, VIVUS, Inc. (VVUS) dropped -11.47% Friday. Its previous 52-week high was $31.21 and moved up 148.23% over the same period, trading at a volume of 10.46 million. Shares have risen -1.45% over the trailing 6 months. The stock is currently trading -6.35% below its SMA 50 and -7.94% below its SMA 200.
Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:QCOR) shares declined in the last session as investors got disappointed from a Thursday morning conference call intended to clarify whether health insurer Aetna Inc. is greatly limiting coverage of the drug maker’s lead product, Acthar.
To have a quick look on this stock’s price history, beta used to measure the volatility or systematic risk in comparison to the market as a whole was 0.26 and the percentage change in the price over the last fifty two weeks remained at +21.15%. The price range in those 52 weeks had a highest hit of $58.91 on Jul 09, 2012 while lowest level during that period was $22.26 on Sep 19, 2012.
AEterna Zentaris Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:AEZS) was up after announcement came in that a poster on its oral prostate cancer vaccine candidate, AEZS-120, is set to be on display at the approaching 32nd Congress of the Société Internationale d’Urologie which is scheduled to be held September 30 through October 4, 2012 at the Fukuoka International Congress Center in Fukuoka, Japan.
The stock’s price increased in the last trading session with a previous 52-week high of $2.17. The stock was trading on above-average volume. The stock traded at a volume of 11.88 million shares at a price gain of 0.84%. The share price is now down 79.57% for the past three months. Latest closing price was 0.52% above its 50-day moving average and 0.71% above its 200-day moving average.