Dyax Shares Defy Gravity on Secondary Offering News

The newest hot stock in biotechnology is now giving everyone the chance to get a piece of it. Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ: DYAX) announced that it will have an offering of 7 million shares of its common stock, with an overallotment option for an additional 1.05 million shares. Considering the most recent closing price for Dyax at $28.61, the total offering — including the option — would be valued at $230.3 million.

The underwriters for the offering are Merrill Lynch, Cowen, Needham, RBC Capital Markets and Wedbush PacGrow.

Following the offering, a total of approximately 143.7 million shares will be outstanding, valuing the company at $3.9 billion.

This secondary offering came on the heels of bullish views from analysts originally inspired by positive drug study results.

The company announced positive drug study data last Tuesday evening from the Phase 1b clinical study of the company’s investigational product, DX-2930. This candidate is being developed for the prevention of hereditary angioedema (HAE) attacks. Note that this disorder affects roughly one in 10,000 to 50,000 people.

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A total of 37 subjects were randomized to active drug or placebo in a 2:1 ratio across four dosing groups of 30, 100, 300 or 400 mg. Each subject received two doses of DX-2930 or placebo, separated by 14 days, and was followed for 15 weeks after the second dose.

The good news was that DX-2930 was well tolerated at all dose levels. There were no deaths or subject discontinuations due to an adverse event. No serious adverse events in subjects treated with DX-2930 and no evidence of dose-limiting toxicity were reported.

Another big bit of news to note was that Dyax received Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the investigation of DX-2930 for HAE.

After seeing such a jump in reaction to the announcement, analysts could not help but weigh in on Dyax. Some of the price target hikes are nothing short of huge.

• Oppenheimer maintained an Outperform rating and raised the price target to $26 from $14.
• RBC Capital Markets maintained its Outperform rating and raised the price target to $31 from $18. Also kudos to RBC for predicting positive results ahead of the study being released.
• Leerink Partners reiterated an Outperform rating and raised the price target to $25.
• Wedbush reiterated an Outperform rating and raised the price target to $35. The firm noted, “Small numbers, but data suggest DX-2930 could represent the new gold standard for HAE prophylaxis.”
• Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating and raised the price target to $31 from $18, suggesting that DX-2930 has the potential to become the next standard of care in HAE.
• Needham reiterated a Buy rating and raised its price target to $30 from $19.
• Merrill Lynch reiterated a Buy rating and raised its price target to $30 from $16. The firm noted that the drug showed impressive efficacy and a thus far clean safety profile.

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Note that most stocks that have secondary offerings experience something of a sell-off, but Dyax is different in this regard. Considering the massive gain that the stock has had recently, one would expect a sell-off, but this stock appears to be defying gravity.

Tuesday morning, shares of Dyax were down about 1.5% to $28.19. The 52-week trading range is $6.05 to $28.68. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $29.75.