Why Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Is Poised to Underperform

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, biotech company Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LXRX  ) has received a distressing two-star ranking.

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

Lexicon facts

Headquarters (founded)	The Woodlands, Texas (1995)
Market Cap	$1.2 billion
Industry	Biotechnology
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$1.2 million
Management	Co-Founder/CEO Arthur Sands Co-Founder/Chief Technology Officer Brian Zambrowicz
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)	(51.8%)
Cash/Debt	$206.4 million / $23.8 million
Competitors	Aptalis Pharma Deltagen TolerRx

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 16% of the 64 All-Star members who have rated Lexicon believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Earlier today, one of those Fools, All-Star zzlangerhans, succinctly summed up the bear case for our community:

When Lexicon's cap goes over a billion bucks, something just doesn't ring right to me. I can't help but think that a lot of people buying this stub think it's a cheap stock because of the share price and don't really pay attention to the share count. The company reported some encouraging data for LX4211 and telotristat in 2012, but I don't see any likely catalysts in the near future. Cash is [$200M], but burn is [$30M] so that runway is only good until mid 2014. Expect ongoing substantial dilutive financings and further ballooning of the share count. Once the phony fiscal cliff enthusiasm gives way to renewed knee quivering in the face of economic reality, expect bloated stocks like Lexicon to be the first to give up their gains.

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