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Biotech / Medical : Incyte (INCY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (1752)	4/30/2001 3:55:06 PM
From: keokalani'nui	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3202

From Bioscope. -- POSTER CHILD? If the assignment were to pick a stock that epitomized biotech's recent boom-bust cycle, my choice would be Incyte Genomics. Long before the race to map the human genome put biotech on the front pages and made Wall Street swoon, the Palo Alto firm was using sophisticated machines to tease secrets out of DNA and licensing its findings to drug and biotech companies. Back in the fall of 1999, when the gene race was just heating up, Incyte was trading under $18 a share. By year's end the stock had begun a glorious, unsustainable surge, as gene-crazed investors bid Incyte shares to a Feb. 25, 2000, peak of $280.50. Soon, however, former President Bill Clinton's gaffe over gene patents pricked the bio bubble and sent Incyte plunging into a long, deep slide. By Sept. 1, 2000, the stock was trading at $40.25 after a 2-for-1 split on Aug. 31, 2000. Its shares closed at $15.33 Friday, as a better-than-expected earnings report helped lift the stock off a 52-week low of $11.44, on March 22. The company's rise and fall is summed up by a glance at its two-year stock chart, which bears an eerie resemblance to the Matterhorn. Incyte has supporters among the analyst community, who say the shares are a bargain today. Alan Auerbach of Wells Fargo Van Kasper said Incyte is in the strongest of the gene discovery companies, with more revenues, more customers and more patented gene discoveries slowly percolating through the drug discovery process where -- one day -- they will turn into royalty income. Institutional investors have been increasing their stakes in Incyte and now own about two-thirds of the company, usually a good sign for a stock. Detractors won't go on the record, but they grumble about the lackluster leadership of chief executive Roy Whitfield, who hasn't shown Wall Street why Incyte deserves a better valuation than newer gene discovery firms such as Celera Genomics. Celera and Incyte trade in a tight pattern, moving up and down together, as if investors see them as identical twins. In a telephone interview Friday, Whitfield addressed the leadership whispers thus: "Clearly, I serve at the pleasure of the board, as I have since April 8, 1991, when the company was founded." Whitfield said he had just returned from a visit to one of Incyte's drug company customers, who consistently tell him they value Incyte's gene database. "We're looking to the long term," he said. The earnings bounce and recent stock rise have given Incyte a bit of momentum. This will be a stock to watch in the months ahead. sfgate.com Wilder