Diamonds and Dogs
6/2/14
Protective Life Corporation (PL)Protective Life is trading higher today, up 11.85% to $58.50. The insurance and investment company saw its shares pop after news of a possible buyout. The rumor is that the Japanese company; Dai-ichi Life Insurance is planning on spending $5 billion to buy Protective. Dai-chi said that it plans to buyout an American insurer but it did not specifically say Protective. Regardless, the numbers seem to point to Protective, as Dai-ichi said it would spend $500 billion yen ($5 billion), and the market cap of Protective is $4.6 billion. Protective shares reached a new 52-week high of $60.38 intraday.
Puma Biotechnology Inc. (PBYI)
Puma Biotechnology is getting torn apart today, down 25.42% to $57.00. The cancer care biotech company saw its shares get creamed after releasing phase 2 data for its drug, PB272. The phase 2 trial showed that 3 out of 40 had a partial response to the drug, while four demonstrated prolonged stable disease (more than six months), and 12 experienced stable disease equating to six months or less. Furthermore, 29% of the patients who received PB272 showed symptoms of grade 3 diarrhea. Although the numbers and results were not bad, investors were clearly looking for much better results. Shares of Puma fell over $19.00 today but are still well above their 52-week low of $33.58.
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