Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, biotech company Progenics Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PGNX) has received a distressing two-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Progenics' business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Progenics facts
| Headquarters (Founded) | Tarrytown, N.Y. (1986) |
| Market Cap | $287 million |
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $84.8 million |
| Management | CEO Mark Baker (since March 2011) CFO Robert McKinney (since March 2005) |
| Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) | (31.7%) |
| Cash/Debt | $498 million / $336 million |
Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 9% of the 184 members who have rated Progenics believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bears include All-Stars TSIF and zzlangerhans, both of whom are ranked in the top 1% of our community.
Just yesterday, TSIF touched on Progenics' seemingly unsustainable price action: "Simply shorting the 25% spike in Progenics Pharmaceuticals on the phase III data for its constipation drug. ... Even if this gets into approval, I don't see much market upside. Short term call."
In fact, Progenics currently sports a particularly lofty EV/EBITDA of 39. That represents a clear premium to much larger drug makers like GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) (13), Merck (NYSE: MRK) (6), and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) (7).
CAPS resident biotech expert zzlangerhans elaborates on the bear case:
The [$60 million] upfront payment from [Salix Pharmaceuticals] for Relistor was a gift, but that's old news now and the company will surely eat up that cash. Relistor won't be bringing in much revenue even with expanded approval in April 2012, and the PSMA vaccine has been pickling in phase I for at least four years already. At least the company had the good taste to drop their sham virology program.
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