Biotech And Life Science Trades: Q1 2023 Performance By The Numbers
Image Source: Unsplash
- The leading sectors in Q1 were technology and semiconductors. The SPY was up 7% year-to-date.
- Small-caps are beginning to trend upwards.
- Healthcare has been lagging, with the XLV down 5.5% as investors rotate into growth stocks.
Despite a strong month and a great finish to the quarter, many traders remain cautious about the market. Some are still looking for a test of the S&P October bottom at 348. It’s been a volatile time after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, but the first quarter of 2023 was quite good overall, especially if you had positions in mega-cap tech stocks (such as AAPL, MSFT, and GOOGL) or semiconductors, which are up over 29% year-to-date.
But over the past week, many of our other picks did well. If you look back over this quarter, you can see the peak for the XBI was in early February. Here is a recap of where we are for our life science trades in 2023:
- Our niche growth play, Pacific Biosciences of California (PACB), was up 20.5% and is up over 41% year-to-date. We will look to Veracyte (VCYT) for more gains here.
- Our value plays, Evolent Health (EVH) and Hologic (HOLX), are also doing well year-to-date.
- We sold the XBI ETF at $80, and we plan to get back in when biotech momentum picks up.The IBB ETF appears to be a safer play right now.
- QuidelOrtho Corporation (QDEL) hit a bottom, and we added to our position at $85.
- Our only losses since the initial trades were seen with Cryoport (CYRX) and Geron Corporation (GERN).
We will cover our top large-cap biopharmaceuticals in a future post.
| P 1/20/23 | % Perf | 2/4/23 | 3/31/23 | ||||||||
| Company | Ticker | $ | P | % week | % Perf | P | % week | YTD % | |||
| CRSPR Therap | CRSP | 49.61 | -25 | 55.27 | 4.72 | -15 | 45.23 | 4.14 | 11.27 | ||
| or Intellia | NTLA | ||||||||||
| Cryoport | CYRX | 21.75 | -42.34 | 25.24 | 9.41 | -33 | 24 | 5.59 | 38.33 | ||
| Evolent Health | EVH | 30.83 | 13.74 | 31.96 | 2.21 | 17.91 | 32.45 | 6.05 | 15.56 | ||
| Geron | GERN | 3.19 | 9.24 | 3.22 | 3.59 | 10.27 | 2.17 | -6.87 | -10.33 | ||
| Hologic | HOLX | 79.66 | 22.41 | 84.68 | 2.28 | 30.14 | 80.7 | 1.89 | 7.87 | added | |
| Pacific Biosci | PACB | 11.29 | 55.68 | 11.58 | -1.7 | 59.67 | 11.58 | 20.5 | 41.56 | ||
| Quidel/Ortho | QDEL | 88.13 | -11.56 | 89.7 | 3.93 | -9.98 | 89.09 | 2.31 | 3.99 | added | |
| Supernus | SUPN | 40.3 | 12.3 | 41.61 | 2.29 | 15.95 | 36.23 | 1.29 | 1.57 | ||
| Veracyte | VCYT | 24.89 | 39.43 | 26.67 | 2.46 | 49.41 | 22.3 | 1.5 | -6.03 | ||
| SPDR Biotech | XBI | 86.99 | 14.75 | 90.39 | 1.12 | 19.24 | 76.21 | 2.72 | -8.18 | sold 80 | |
| wildcard | |||||||||||
| Invitae | NVTA | 2.555 | – | 2.62 | 3.15 | 0.67 | 1.35 | -4.65 | -27.42 | -16.38 | |
| ETF Comparison | 1 yr perf | ||||||||||
| iShares CoreS&P | IJR | 96.7 | 3.7 | 2.18 | -10.36 | ||||||
| iShares Russell | IWM | 178.4 | 3.85 | 2.32 | -13.09 | ||||||
| iShares BIO | IBB | 129.16 | 2.61 | -1.62 | -0.87 | ||||||
| NASDAQ-100 | QQQ | 320.93 | 3.23 | 20.52 | -11.48 | ||||||
| HealthcareSPDR | XLV | 129.46 | 1.7 | -4.7 | -5.5 | ||||||
| Energy SPDR | XLE | 82.83 | 6.34 | -5.3 | 8.36 | ||||||
| Semis | SMH | 263.19 | 3.37 | 29.69 | (2.45) |
More By This Author:
Can Healthcare Stocks Survive Macro Headwinds?
Small Cap Biotechs Slammed By SVB Collapse
Healthcare Is Lagging But Biotech Offers Good Potential For Value And Trading
Comments
