A hostile bid by Swiss health care company Roche (PINK:RHHBY) for gene sequencer Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) sent ILMN shares through the roof Wednesday and ignited rallies across the tiny sector.
Roche is offering to buy Illumina for $5.7 billion, or $44.50 per share — about a 20% premium from ILMN’s Tuesday closing price around $37.80. However, Illumina stock finished Wednesday at $55.15 per share — almost 46% higher. Roche is trying to corner the market in the DNA sequencing business — it’s currently the No. 3 player, behind Life Technologies (NASDAQ:LIFE) and Illumina, the leader in market share at 65%.
Other genetic-based businesses rose in suit, including Complete Genomics (NASDAQ:GNOM, +19.6%) and Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB, +16.2%). Life Technologies also saw a relatively modest gain of 3.7%.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) was cruising in after-hours trading on a strong earnings report that also included a 2.5% increase in subscribership. The company reported earnings of $41 million, or 73 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of 55 cents, though down 16% from the year-ago period. NFLX shares were trading up more than 10% in after-hours trading.
A couple other big movers on Wednesday came from the airlines industry, where US Airways (NYSE:LCC, +17.3%) and Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL, +6.2%) both gained ground after their morning earnings reports beat Wall Street expectations.
Heading the other direction after earnings were Xerox (NYSE:XRX, -9.9%) and Corning (NYSE:GLW, -10.7%) — though InvestorPlace Editor Jeff Reeves thinks the dip in GLW shares might be a good buy-and-hold opportunity.
Three Up
- Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY): Up 9.8% ($1.51) to $16.92.
- Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM): Up 8.6% ($1.29) to $16.30.
- Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL): Up 6.2% ($26.25) to $446.66.
Three Down
- Fusion-io (NYSE:FIO): Down 16% ($4.84) to $25.50. (Read more about Fusion-io here.)
- LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC): Down 15.5% ($1.59) to $8.64.
- WellPoint (NYSE:WLP): Down 4.8% ($3.30) to $66.10.
Kyle Woodley is the assistant editor of InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Check out recaps from previous trading days here.
