Alexion Pharmaceuticals Stock Underperforms

The Shares of Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. shed 1.05% to $168.49 Tuesday. This proved to be an all-around mixed trading session for the stock market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA rising 0.06% to 34,133.03 and the S&P 500 Index SPX falling 0.67% to 4,164.66. The stock’s fall snapped a two-day winning streak.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. closed $3.59 below its 52-week high ($172.08), which the company reached on April 30th. The stock demonstrated a mixed performance when compared to some of its competitors Tuesday, as Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD fell 0.24% to $65.64, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. VRTX fell 1.42% to $214.85, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. REGN fell 0.70% to $485.18. Trading volume (3.0 M) eclipsed its 50-day average volume of 2.4 M.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc came out with quarterly earnings of $3.52 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.08 per share. This compares to earnings of $3.22 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 14.29%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this drugmaker would post earnings of $2.50 per share when it produced earnings of $2.96, delivering a surprise of 18.40%.

AstraZeneca’s proposed $39bn acquisition of rare disease therapy company Alexion Pharmaceuticals has passed a US Federal Trade Commission review. The FTC had signalled last month that it would begin scrutinising large pharma deals more closely but despite being the largest biopharma M&A announced in 2020, AZ’s proposal was cleared by the government agency without a hitch.