What happened
A notable decliner on Wednesday, MacroGenics (MGNX -1.28%) stock came roaring back the next day to close almost 9% higher. The company has suffered a big setback, but there are obviously investors who still believe it has potential to make them money.
So what
The setback is that the company's only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drug, breast cancer treatment Margenza, didn't perform impressively in a final analysis. In that study, Margenza plus chemotherapy was compared to a prominent cancer treatment, Roche's (RHHBY 1.64%) trastuzumab (branded as Herceptin), also in combination with chemotherapy.
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Disappointingly, it was found that the Margenza patients "did not demonstrate a statistically significant advantage for Margenza over trastuzumab," according to MacroGenics Tuesday press release on the matter.
Not every aspect of the analysis was dispiriting. The researchers found that a large subset of patients with a particular genetic variation had a 2.5 month longer survival term with Margenza than with the Roche regime (a total of 23.3 months for the former, against 20.8 months for the latter).
Now what
Perhaps that glimmer of hope is what brought investors back into MacroGenics stock on Thursday. Another positive factor might be that one prominent bull is sticking to his positive view on the biotech. Wedbush prognosticator David Nierengarten reiterated his outperform -- or buy -- recommendation, keeping his $32 per-share price target.
"While the data reported are top-line negative, it does not come as much of a surprise given the previously reported data," he wrote in a research note to clients.
