BMO Considers Recent Sales Data on Arena's Belviq, Maintains Market Perform Rating

Investors in shares of Arena Pharma

are responding to several news items Monday. The stock last traded at $6.30, down more than 1.5 percent from Friday's closing price. In addition to an earlier Seeking Alpha article evaluating the company's Belviq sales after three months, traders are also digesting a research note from BMO's Jim Birchenough. Birchenough said 13-week prescriptions from Belviq showed 0.2 percent week-over-week growth. For the week ended Aug. 30th, the BMO analyst said total scrips were 3,849. Birchenough compared these figures to data on VIVUS's

Qsymia which showed units of 1,457 over the same duration. Birchenough iterated he would suggest investors wait on the sidelines regarding Arena. BMO maintains a Market Perform rating and $8 price target on shares of Arena.