1-Star Stocks Poised to Plunge: Antigenics?

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 135,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, small-cap biotech company Antigenics (Nasdaq: AGEN) has received the dreaded one-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Antigenics' business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Antigenics facts

Headquarters (founded)	Lexington, Mass. (1994)
Market Cap	$162.37 million
Industry	Biotechnology
TTM Revenue	$2.23 million
Management	Co-Founder/CEO Dr. Garo Armen CFO Shalini Sharp
Return on Capital (average, last three years)	(48.9%)
Two-Week Return	313%
Competitors	GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) Dendreon (Nasdaq: DNDN)
CAPS members bearish on AGEN also bearish on	Vonage Holdings (NYSE: VG)
CAPS members bullish on AGEN also bullish on	General Electric (NYSE: GE) Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over on CAPS, fully 108 of the 221 members who have rated Antigenics -- some 49% -- believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bears include PDTBiotech and All-Star zzlangerhans, who is ranked in the top 0.5% of our community.

Just two days ago, PDTBiotech voiced skepticism over Antigenics' recent drug data (which showed that users of its kidney cancer therapy Oncophage lived considerably longer):

Garo Armen strikes again. The difference in overall survival in all patients treated is far less impressive than the difference in the subset, and they're nowhere near median overall survival. No way this platform keeps this up through the rest of the trial, this is almost certainly just a statistical blip which will work itself out over time.

In a pitch from the same day, zzlangerhans shares that bearish disbelief:

Antigenics was a ten-bagger for anyone who bought it at recent lows of 0.3 and sold at an intra-day high over 3 this week. … Oncophage failed phase III trials years ago and the company has been stringing investors along with post hoc subset analyses and publicity stunts like getting approval in Russia, which has generated no meaningful revenue. … They've long ago lost any credibility with anyone who has followed biotech for more than a couple of years. I successfully red thumbed them after their Russian "approval" and I'm going to hit hard again now. This isn't Dendreon II, sorry.

What do you think about Antigenics, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 135,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.