Tsunami Monday – an 81 percent drop in share value after a big drug trial failure – led to some snarky writing about Durham-based Chimerix on Tuesday.
“After the big fall, is it time to stick a fork in Chimerix, or has the panic selloff created a value opportunity?”
So wrote financial news website Benzinga.
Apparently some buyers did see an opportunity, driving up Chimerix (Nasdaq: CRMX) by more than 11 percent in very heavy trading.
More than 14 million shares traded hands. Not quite as heavy as on Monday when well over 20 million were traded. But both totals are far ahead of the daily average of 982,000 shares as calculated by Yahoo! Finance.
Shares closed at $7.37, up 75 cents.
JPMorgan downgraded Chimerix to neutral and cut its share price target to $15 from $65.
The antiviral from Chimerix called brincidofovir “unexpectedly and disappointingly” was unable to prevent infections in transplant patients, JP Morgan noted.
The firm says investors are likely to “little credit” to brincidofovir, and there are no “near-term events that could substantially reverse this view,” TheStreet.com reported.
Benzinga noted that Barclays wasn’t ready to write off Chimerix, noting that it is “premature to write off brincidofovir just yet.”
Chimerix said Monday it is still studying data from the failed trial and also will continue other trials.
Barclays did cut its share target to $12 from $65 yet did keep an “Outperform” rating.
FBR & Co cut Chimerix to “Market Perform” with a share target price of $14.
Shares closed Monday at $6.62, which represented a drop of nearly $29. That’s a record low for the stock.
However, in pre-market trading Tuesday, shares regained 6 percent, or 39 cents. That trend continued into afternoon.
