Reuters: Global Markets: Sequenom shares plunge on weak results, downgrades

Reuters: Global Markets Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Sequenom shares plunge on weak results, downgrades Jul 25th 2013, 14:33 Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:33am EDT (Reuters) - Shares of Sequenom Inc (SQNM.O) fell as much as 36 percent, a day after the life sciences company reported a jump in its second-quarter loss and prompted analysts to slash their ratings and price targets on the stock. The loss was largely on account of a delay in reimbursements on its tests caused by changes made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to billing codes. The results prompted at least three brokerages to slash their ratings on the stock. Another three cut their price targets. William Blair analyst Brian Weinstein said the company's reimbursement issues did not affect test volumes in the quarter. However, he said Sequenom's MaterniT21 test was facing pressure from competitors. MaterniT21, meant to detect chromosome disorders in unborn children, accounted for 38,000 of 46,700 tests ordered in the second quarter. "For the first time that we know of, we were told that Sequenom sales reps had to fight to keep existing accountsâ€"battles that in some cases they lost, but at a minimum did not allow the sales reps to focus on new volumes," Weinstein wrote in a note to clients. Weinstein downgraded the stock to "market perform" from "outperform". However, Jefferies analyst Brandon Couillard said the company's cash collection issues seemed to be temporary, and the volume of the MaterniT21 test was fine. Sequenom said it would cut back on its services to payers from where there would be no reimbursement. Analysts said the step would hurt its volumes and market share. "Sequenom no longer has the balance sheet to maintain its strategy of seeking market share irrespective of payer coverage," Ladenburg Thalmann analyst Kevin DeGeeter wrote in research note. DeGeeter lowered his rating on the stock to "neutral" from "buy". Shares of the company were down 28 pct at $3.36 in heavy morning trade on the Nasdaq. (Reporting By Vrinda Manocha in Bangalore; Editing by Sreejiraj Eluvangal) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions