A Handful of Biotech Stocks Plunge After Disappointing Results

A number of small-cap biotech stocks were trading down sharply on Monday after a few disappointing earnings reports from the sector were released prior to the opening bell. The big losers included Ocular Therapeutix Inc OCUL, TG Therapeutics Inc TGTX, Atara Biotherapeutics Inc ATRA, Adaptimmune Therapeutics PLC ADAP and Five Prime Therapeutics FPRX. The losses in the small-cap names are likely due to a combination of disappointing earnings from some of the companies along with a major downdraft in the healthcare sector as a whole on Monday. At last check, the entire sector was down more than 1 percent.

Prior to the opening bell, Atara reported fiscal second-quarter loss of $0.66 per share versus estimates calling for a loss of $0.61 per share. Atara shares were last down around 9 percent to $22.66 in late-day trading. Adaptimmune reported sharply lower than expected revenue for its fiscal second-quarter and also a wider-than-expected per share loss. During the last hour of trading on Monday, that stock was down more than 10 percent to $7.81.

TG Therapeutics also reported a wider-than-expected loss of $0.33 per share versus estimates calling for a loss of $0.29. In the wake of the results, TG was last down around 9 percent to $5.49. Ocular Therapeutix would appear to be moving lower on the day in the wake of the overall weakness in the sector and in sympathy with some of the other biotech names. Profit-taking is also likely responsible for the stock's 8 percent loss as OCUL recorded substantial gains on Thursday and Friday of last week. Similarly, Five Prime recently hit a new 52-week high before falling around 9 percent on Monday due to profit-taking and sector weakness.