IDEXX Laboratories (IDXX) and Novocure (NVCR) were attracting plenty of interest in the US pre-market this morning as Wall Street reopens following the 4th of July holiday. Other leaders attracting investor interest today included Virtu Financial (VIRT) and American Express Co (AXP).
IDEXX Laboratories
IDEXX Labs has been tapping into some momentum from the much wider ownership of pets during the pandemic. The company specialises in pet treatments and is now looking at a much bigger market than in 2019 with 70% of US households now owning pets. In 2020 it launched a hematology analyser for pets which is able to deliver blood results in five minutes. It has just started shipping this to vets. It has also recently announced the acquisition of ezyVet, which is a cloud-based software solutions firm for the vet market.
IDEXX stock has been on a fantastic run recently, up from 474 in late March, the stock closed last week out at 648. It’s been on a major run since early May. It has almost doubled in price in 12 months with little serious interruptions.
Novocure
Novocure is another health stock, although this time it is cancer treatments for humans that is the main area of specialisation. Last week it announced final interim results from its Phase 2 pilot liver cancer trial. It reported a 76% disease control rate for Tumor Treating Fields using a poor prognosis study population. The objective response rate – patients achieving a complete or partial response – was 9.5% (21 evaluable patients).
NVCR stock had dropped at the end of last week, down 2.94% Friday. Stock is well up on where it was in April, following a huge surge in buying 13 April that drive the price well above the key 170 level for Novocure. Note that this one, despite its almost $22bn market cap, has been subject to some major gyrations in recent months on the back of test data. It looks as if investors are lining up to get back in after the heavy selling last week and that the close price of 184 was deemed too cheap.
Virtu Financial and American Express
Virtu Financial Inc is also up in the pre-market but its investors have been having a rockier ride in the last six months, although VIRT stock is still up YTD. The technicals are indicating a strong buy for Tuesday if you are a day trader, but also that it is due for an upside correction further out. Virtu Financial is a provider of trading technology to the institutional market so if anything should be a beneficiary of pandemic pressures which have seen an increase in market volatility.
American Express stock is likely trading up following a Goldman Sachs upgrade from neutral to buy. It has also set a new target price for Amex at $225 which is a whopping 33% above where the stock closed Friday. GS is betting on an increase in consumer spending post-lockdown, especially in the US.
Chipotle Mexican Grill
There was plenty of pre-market selling activity around Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) which was down 2.86% in pre-market trading at time of writing. No big news out of the US restaurant chain but you would expect investors to be feeling a bit more positive about CMG stocks with Americans going back into restaurants again. Raymond James recently upgraded Chipotle to strong buy, but investors are still looking at a disappointing first half for Chipotle.
