Dallas, Texas 10/31/2013 (Financialstrend) – Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) is a $731 million market capitalized biotech firm. During trading on October 30, the firm posted a impressive 4.49% increase in its market value when it became known that investment firm Sarissa Capital Management has a significant 6.22% stake in the common stock of the firm. In a positive affirmation to the potential of the stock, in the past one week the investors have helped the value of the shares go up by 29.41%. This means the stock has made up in small measure for all the losses it suffered during trading earlier in the month when it was announced that its target drug “Iclusing” had attracted safety concerns during clinical trials.
The drug makers stock had shed close to 79% of its market value in the past one month. This was in line with its quarterly depreciation of 79%. The dip in investor confidence has been in line with the continued alarm that that rating agencies have been highlighting on the potential of this drug maker.
In the past 30 days 6 different rating agencies and trading companies have downgraded the stock. Most have pegged the stock at neutral from earlier Buy ratings. The target price for the stock has also seen a significant decline with the current PT of $4 just in line with prevailing price of the stock in the market. Over the past 12 months, the drug maker has posted net sales of $20.6 million with a net loss of $247 million in the same period.
The silver lining for the long term investors of the stock is the huge potential the company has in increasing its sales volume. During its second quarter, for which it had declared results in August, the sales had gone up by 4300%. While it would be difficult for the firm to repeat the feat, a sustained increase in sales revenue would go a long way in redeeming the stock with investors and analysts alike.