Retirement Documentary

I just finished watching a documentary by Frontline, Can You Afford To Retire? It’s definitely an eye opener and describes how many baby boomers will have a very difficult time reaching their retirement goal. Most will have to continue working to simply maintain their minimal standard of living. Here’s the link to the documentary, click: here.

Big Cap Biotech Recovery

I think it's time to jump back into the big cap biotech's. They’ve been through a nice correction, consolidated and starting to move up once again. Take a look at the biotech exchange traded fund, BBH (Ticker: BBH). The top five holdings in the BBH: Genentech (Ticker: DNA), Amgen (Ticker: AMGN), Gilead Sciences (Ticker: GILD), Biogen Idec (Ticker: BIIB) and Genzyme (Ticker: GENZ) make up ~ 85% of the fund. The chart of BBH looks great right now with the down trend broken. I don’t like the small cap biotech’s as much since they are following the big caps and are not leading this biotech recovery.

Here's a chart of the BBH:

Just Waiting...

I haven’t posted during the past week because I was having too much fun watching the market correct. No seriously, when the markets in a correction, I just stay on the sidelines and watch. I'll wait until a recovery starts to take place and that’s when I'll start buying. I have my shopping list ready and will start buying aggressively very soon. Oh, I’m glad I didn’t sell Sepracor (Ticker: SEPR); now it’s looking very good after the Neurocrine Biosciences (Ticker: NBIX) blow up.

Biotech Rebound

Finally… An UP day for the biotech sector! The recent decline in the biotech stocks was just plain panic selling. A lot of the biotech stocks were simply in a free fall. Today’s M&A action with AstraZeneca (Ticker: AZN) buying out Cambridge Antibody Technology (Ticker: CATG) helped the group out a bit. And even insiders are starting to nibble at their company stock. Here’s a recent insider buy at Genzyme, click: here. Hmm… Maybe it's time to start buying.

Burger King IPO?

Hmm… Should I? I have the opportunity to participate in the Burger King IPO, which is scheduled to trade on Wednesday, May 17 with an expected price range of $15-17 per share. CNN Money has a good write up about the Burger King IPO, click: here. Renaissance Capital’s IPOhome.com also has an excellent analysis on this upcoming IPO, click: here. Burger King has a good story, but I’ll pass… This doesn’t have the feel of a hot IPO like Tim Horton’s. I don’t expect a big pop on the first day of trading with Burger King.

Genentech & Amgen

CNN Money has a good write up on Genentech and Amgen. Click: here. There’s definitely value in the biotech sector, but I would not buy until this correction is over. I’m waiting for a big volume day on the upside before I start to buy; that would signal the end of this biotech correction.

Qiagen's Convert

Qiagen released a good earnings report on Monday, but used the good news to issue $300 million in 3.25% senior converts. Ugg... The stock would have taken off if they didn't make this offering. It's pretty clear that they will be using the cash (now $500 million in the bank) to make larger acquisitions. So far they've made some very good and a few not so good acquisitions. I just hope they use this cash wisely. Qiagen continues to be one of my favorites.

A Nice Quarter for Qiagen

Qiagen (Ticker: QGEN) just reported a very nice quarter. They reported revenues of $108.7 million and eps of $0.13, which beat the street consensus. The company also raised their revenue and eps guidance for the year. The company has made some very nice acquisitions. Their most recent acquisition was Gentra Systems, which also sells plasmid purification kits. This is one of my favorite biotech tool companies. I see more upside for this little company…

I just love the following quote from the CEO: ""Demand is very strong at the moment and there are no signs that this trend is weakening," Qiagen chief executive Peer Schatz told Reuters. "We had an astoundingly good first quarter."

Another Update...

It's time once again for a quick review of my nonretirement portfolio. I usually don't trade much, but here are the closed positions for 2006. The total net return for the closed positions is +20.21%.

Company	BUY	SELL	% Return
Apple Computer	4/3/06 @ $63.64	4/10/06 @ $69.11	8.60%
Brookfield Asset Management	3/13/06 @ $54.76	4/3/06 @ $55.85	3.29%
Leucadia National Corp.	3/13/06 @ $55.64	3/27/06 @ $59.12	6.27%
Nasdaq 100	11/21/02 @ $27.75	3/13/06 @ $40.53	46.06%
Tim Hortons	3/23/06 @ $23.16	3/24/06 @ $31.98	38.07%

And here are my current open positions. Yeah, I know... The recent correction in the biotechs has been painful. These companies will recover as long as Q2 earnings come through. I'm considering selling Sepracor to cut my losses; it's latest earnings report was a big disappointment.

Company	% Return
Amgen	-12.51%
Biogen Idec	-16.29%
Boston Scientific	-23.53%
Genentech	-0.59%
Genzyme Corp.	+208.51%
Invitrogen	+301.71%
Microsoft	-39.63%
Nasdaq 100	-0.70%
Qiagen	+314.45%
Pfizer	-10.61%
Sepracor	-24.57%

Biotechs Being Dumped

The biotechs continued to be dumped, but I sense the end is near. If you take a look at the PBE (a biotech ETF), you'll see that it's trying to form a bottom. It's tempting to buy here, but I'm already loaded up with biotech stocks. Here's a one year chart of the PBE:



On the other hand, Qiagen's chart is looking good. The weak dollar probably has something to do with it's recent upside move. It will report earnings next week so we'll see if the earnings are good enough to push this one higher. I hope so! It's my second largest holding.