Diamonds and Dogs

7/15/16

Herbalife (HLF) is ready to move on. Herbalife is jumping 19% to a new 52 week high after the company reached a deal with FTC to pay a $200 million fine and $3 million to the Illinois Attorney General. The company will adopt a two-tier membership structure to improve compliance and show that 80% of product sales are to legitimate end users. The best news is the FTC admitted Herbalife is a legal and ethical business and not a Ponzi scheme as Bill Ackman and their investors short the stock have suggested. Pivotal Research upgraded Herbalife suggesting the stock could rapidly re-price to the $80-$100 level.

Ziopharm Oncology (ZIOP) fell nearly 14 percent Friday after a cancer patient died soon after being injected with the company's experimental cancer therapy. The Boston-based biopharmaceutical company, which owns and acquires a portfolio of cancer therapies, is running an experimental treatment on patients with an aggressive primary brain tumor. This type of cancer, called Glioblastoma, has one of the lowest survival rates among cancers.