Forbes on QDEL, other bird flu picks:
Gurus Fly High With Bird Flu Stocks
Matt Rand, data provided by Marketocracy, 10.18.05, 2:00 PM ET
BURLINGAME, CALIF. - If Alfred Hitchcock's classic film, The Birds, were remade today, the horror might center not on the eyeball-pecking propensities of crazed flocks of fearsome birds, but rather on the deadly disease they carry: the avian flu. People would eat or come into contact with birds and then come down with a debilitating illness. The illness would spread, killing thousands--or millions--around the globe. Right now, this nightmare scenario isn't just keeping public health officials and cable news stations busy; it's also consuming investors...
Another bird flu buy was San Diego-based Quidel (nasdaq: QDEL - news - people ), a maker of diagnostic tests used in hospitals and clinics. Quidel has also been gaining ground, closing at the top of its 52-week range at $10.59 on Monday--more than double where it was at the beginning of the summer. That price is more than 50-times the expected 2005 earnings, and 4.7-times book value. So what's all the fuss about? Gurus think that the company's QuickVue flu test will be useful now that there's news that the avian flu has spread to Europe. The stock was their second-largest new buy of the week. |
