Specialty-drug giants and IBD 50 stocks Actavis (ACT) and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (VRX) were both trading up Thursday morning after the FDA approved both of their bowel-disease drugs late Wednesday. Valeant’s Xifaxan 550 and Actavis’ eluxadoline, now branded Viberzi, were both approved for irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea, or IBS-D. As IBD reported in our summer drug-approval preview, despite this commonality the drugs are
Apple (AAPL) chip supplier NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) is selling its RF power business to China’s JianGuang Asset Management (JAC Capital) for $1.8 billion, a move to satisfy concerns over its pending acquisition of peer Freescale Semiconductor (FSL). NXP shares rose 0.4% to 111.16, reaching another new high in the stock market today. NXP cleared a 105.04 buy point on May 21. On Wednesday, the stock cleared another buy point of 108.60 with a 3.5%
Companies with sound fundamentals such as drugmakers Lannett and Regeneron are good prospects for a stock watch list. Today’s “Screen Of The Day” is “Top Fundamentals,” featuring highly rated firms with annual sales and earnings growth rates of at least 25% over the last three years. Fundamentally sound drug stocks usually do well no matter which way the market is trending because medical care is a basic necessity. Today’s screen includes four