Vivus Trending On Social Media

This week, Social Market Analytics will take a look at social media chatter surrounding Vivus VVUS, a biopharmaceutical company.

At the start of trading on February 23, shares of Vivus moved up dramatically higher, nearly doubling to $20.70 per share, and closed the day at $18.73 for a total gain of 77.5%. The move was likely in reaction to the FDA's recommendation that Vivus be granted marketing approval for Qnexa, a drug for the treatment of adult obesity.

In the modern age, an increasing amount of discussion on stocks has taken place on social media. Savvy traders may be looking for a way to see trends in social media discussion. Enter Social Market Analytics.

SMA generates an S-Score metric for individual equities based on their popularity across social media. These metrics, ahead of major announcements, indicate changes in sentiment level and volatility, which can provide actionable signals for upcoming price movement. Here is quick review of these metrics for Vivus:

From February 10 to 18, the S-Score for Vivus was in the neutral range. Vivus's tweet volume showed unusual activity starting on February 16, leading to a drastic ramp up in S-Score starting on February 18. The uptrend in S-Score continued for three consecutive days and reached a peak of 3.95 (extreme positive) prior to the market open on February 23. As of February 24, the S-Score for Vivus returned to the neutral range as the market and social media integrated the effects of the announcement.

Social media data are noisy and complex. A single metric is insufficient to understand sentiment behavior over time. Our S-Factors are a family of metrics, including volatility and trend measures, designed to provide a complete view of the Social Media signature for each security in the SMA database. We invite the reader to visit our website, read more about our research and use case studies, and participate in our FAQ forum.

Our mission at SMA is to distill the vast social media universe into actionable intelligence.