Investing in biotech stocks - My experience so far

Cus

Why would you be protected up to £85k for your shares? If the platform goes under, you still own the shares. Client assets are segregated.

BrockStoker

Good point. Thanks Cus, that had not occurred to me!

thenewcomer

BrockStoker said:

moneyfoolish said:

BrockStoker said:

Really nice day today thanks to ARWR. Was within spitting distance of 3 figure portfolio value for the first time today:

Fantastic results! Are these the only 2 pharma stocks you currently hold and do you only invest in pharma?

Currently have 4 separate portfolios for individual stocks holding a total of 6 companies between them:

The one above is my combined ISA/SIPP (2 portfolios which I track as if they were one), which I first funded in Nov 2019 (£20K which took a couple of months to invest) and again in Mar 2020 (another £20K which took a couple of months to invest). So technically it's been going less than 1 year. Keep in mind the "total gain" (at the top) and "total gain" for ARWR are both inaccurate since I sold & re-bought, so the gains are actually more than suggested there, but monetary values are accurate. Note that some values are in GBP (at the top, "market value", "daily gain", and "total gain") and others are USD ("symbol", "change", and "avg cost/share").

The next largest portfolio is the ISA I set up for my wife which was funded with £15K in Oct 2020 - here's a screen shot from yesterday (after market close):

All the numbers above are accurate since I have yet to sell anything. I did however fund the account with a further £5K a couple of weeks back, which I used to buy 500 SRNE shares, but have kept the first £15K separate for tracking purposes, and track SRNE like it was a separate portfolio.

On top of that I also have an unwraped share dealing portfolio, started last October, which holds 1000 Orchard Therapeutics shares - that's currently up around 70% too.

But it's not just the individual biotech stocks that have been on the tear, funds have been too. My main portfolio which is heavily overweight biotech/healthcare/tech is also currently at all time highs:

Between them, my biotech investments were up around £13K+ over the last 24 hrs, and if I'm right about the approaching "golden age" in biotech/healthcare, then these are only the small beginnings of it all.

Could it go wrong? Possibly! But we are talking life-changing money here, so I'm happy to take the relatively small risk that accompanies such investments. I believe the main risk for someone investing in individual stocks is panicking, but I'm already used to/comfortable seeing large paper losses and reacting to them  (or not as the case may be) in a calm/logical manner.

what brokerage platform do you use?

thenewcomer

Cus said:

Why would you be protected up to £85k for your shares? If the platform goes under, you still own the shares. Client assets are segregated.

is that for certain?
because im also in the midst of looking for other platforms for my eggs.

BrockStoker

thenewcomer said:

BrockStoker said:

moneyfoolish said:

BrockStoker said:

Really nice day today thanks to ARWR. Was within spitting distance of 3 figure portfolio value for the first time today:

Fantastic results! Are these the only 2 pharma stocks you currently hold and do you only invest in pharma?

Currently have 4 separate portfolios for individual stocks holding a total of 6 companies between them:

The one above is my combined ISA/SIPP (2 portfolios which I track as if they were one), which I first funded in Nov 2019 (£20K which took a couple of months to invest) and again in Mar 2020 (another £20K which took a couple of months to invest). So technically it's been going less than 1 year. Keep in mind the "total gain" (at the top) and "total gain" for ARWR are both inaccurate since I sold & re-bought, so the gains are actually more than suggested there, but monetary values are accurate. Note that some values are in GBP (at the top, "market value", "daily gain", and "total gain") and others are USD ("symbol", "change", and "avg cost/share").

The next largest portfolio is the ISA I set up for my wife which was funded with £15K in Oct 2020 - here's a screen shot from yesterday (after market close):

All the numbers above are accurate since I have yet to sell anything. I did however fund the account with a further £5K a couple of weeks back, which I used to buy 500 SRNE shares, but have kept the first £15K separate for tracking purposes, and track SRNE like it was a separate portfolio.

On top of that I also have an unwraped share dealing portfolio, started last October, which holds 1000 Orchard Therapeutics shares - that's currently up around 70% too.

But it's not just the individual biotech stocks that have been on the tear, funds have been too. My main portfolio which is heavily overweight biotech/healthcare/tech is also currently at all time highs:

Between them, my biotech investments were up around £13K+ over the last 24 hrs, and if I'm right about the approaching "golden age" in biotech/healthcare, then these are only the small beginnings of it all.

Could it go wrong? Possibly! But we are talking life-changing money here, so I'm happy to take the relatively small risk that accompanies such investments. I believe the main risk for someone investing in individual stocks is panicking, but I'm already used to/comfortable seeing large paper losses and reacting to them  (or not as the case may be) in a calm/logical manner.

what brokerage platform do you use?

I use iWeb for stocks and Royal London 360 (Needs a referral from your FA/IFA) for funds. Please note, the screenshots I've been posting are mostly from my portfolio trackers, which are Yahoo Finance and Trustnet respectively.

I'm also on the look out for a new platform for next years "eggs". Still not sure, but needs to be able to hold US stocks in an ISA wrapper, and be accessible from a Windows PC at the very least.

BrockStoker

Strange, my previous post has disappeared! (Edit - or it may just have been because I only thought I'd posted it!)

I'll try again.

Arrowhead price target raised to $110 from $90 at Citi
Citi analyst Shawn Egan raised the firm's price target on Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals to $110 from $90 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares following the company's Q1 results. Clinical results in cystic fibrosis and kidney cancer are expected by the end of Q2 and continue to be underappreciated, Egan tells investors in a research note. Success in either has the potential to validate Arrowhead's lung and/or tumor RNAi delivery technology which would be a "transformational event for the stock and a major source of differentiation from other RNAi companies," says the analyst.

Still very conservative, but most analysts have 3 figure price targets now (if I'm not mistaken). No where near what ARWR is worth, but it's a start!

SRNE just popped too:

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SRNE?p=SRNE

Sorrento Announces Subsidiary Company - ADNAB, Inc. - to Develop and Commercialize ADNAB™ Platform Products for Hematological Malignancies and Solid Tumors Based on an Exclusive Technology License From the Mayo Clinic

https://investors.sorrentotherapeutics.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sorrento-announces-subsidiary-company-adnab-inc-develop-and

moneyfoolish

BrockStoker said:

Strange, my previous post has disappeared! (Edit - or it may just have been because I only thought I'd posted it!)

I'll try again.

Arrowhead price target raised to $110 from $90 at Citi
Citi analyst Shawn Egan raised the firm's price target on Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals to $110 from $90 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares following the company's Q1 results. Clinical results in cystic fibrosis and kidney cancer are expected by the end of Q2 and continue to be underappreciated, Egan tells investors in a research note. Success in either has the potential to validate Arrowhead's lung and/or tumor RNAi delivery technology which would be a "transformational event for the stock and a major source of differentiation from other RNAi companies," says the analyst.

Still very conservative, but most analysts have 3 figure price targets now (if I'm not mistaken). No where near what ARWR is worth, but it's a start!

SRNE just popped too:

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SRNE?p=SRNE

Sorrento Announces Subsidiary Company - ADNAB, Inc. - to Develop and Commercialize ADNAB™ Platform Products for Hematological Malignancies and Solid Tumors Based on an Exclusive Technology License From the Mayo Clinic

https://investors.sorrentotherapeutics.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sorrento-announces-subsidiary-company-adnab-inc-develop-and

I thought you had SRNE but I didn't see it on the list you posted earlier. Do you still have it? I noticed EVFM went up a fair bit today so I guess you've cracked the £100,000 in your ARWR/EVFM portfolio!

BrockStoker

I've given up posting every little thing, but over the last few weeks many of my stocks have seen sizable institutional investments. These big players must do pretty thorough DD before investing, and I doubt they would invest unless they thought there was serious upside potential. Over January for example, Fidelity increased it's AMRS holding, which was already over 5%. Blackrock also did similar with SRNE. ARWR is getting attention too. I liked this bit of commentary (dug up/posted by Parttimefriend on the ARWR YHF MB) from a fund which holds ARWR:

https://www.baronfunds.com/product-commentary/BHCHX

Top Contributors
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biotechnology company developing RNAi therapeutics for a long list of diseases. Shares rose given a multitude of upcoming data readouts, a large financial deal with Takeda, and the prospect of increasing RNAi applications from just the liver to other tissue types (i.e., other diseases). We retain high conviction in Arrowhead and expect it to become a large multinational pharmaceutical company over time.

Here is a breakdown of Arrowhead's institutional ownership if anyone is interested:

https://fintel.io/sob/us/arwr

Edit to add:

Interesting to see ALNY down AH with (seemingly - at least so far) no news.

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ALNY/community?p=ALNY

BrockStoker

moneyfoolish said:

BrockStoker said:

Strange, my previous post has disappeared! (Edit - or it may just have been because I only thought I'd posted it!)

I'll try again.

Arrowhead price target raised to $110 from $90 at Citi
Citi analyst Shawn Egan raised the firm's price target on Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals to $110 from $90 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares following the company's Q1 results. Clinical results in cystic fibrosis and kidney cancer are expected by the end of Q2 and continue to be underappreciated, Egan tells investors in a research note. Success in either has the potential to validate Arrowhead's lung and/or tumor RNAi delivery technology which would be a "transformational event for the stock and a major source of differentiation from other RNAi companies," says the analyst.

Still very conservative, but most analysts have 3 figure price targets now (if I'm not mistaken). No where near what ARWR is worth, but it's a start!

SRNE just popped too:

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SRNE?p=SRNE

Sorrento Announces Subsidiary Company - ADNAB, Inc. - to Develop and Commercialize ADNAB™ Platform Products for Hematological Malignancies and Solid Tumors Based on an Exclusive Technology License From the Mayo Clinic

https://investors.sorrentotherapeutics.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sorrento-announces-subsidiary-company-adnab-inc-develop-and

I thought you had SRNE but I didn't see it on the list you posted earlier. Do you still have it? I noticed EVFM went up a fair bit today so I guess you've cracked the £100,000 in your ARWR/EVFM portfolio!

Yes, I hold SRNE (in Mrs Brocks portfolio although I'm tracking it as though it was a separate portfolio).

Unfortunately my ISA/SIPP portfolio didn't quite break through the 100K mark today (in fact it was down a bit since ARWR ended the day down), but Mrs Brock's portfolio did break the 100% profit mark today thanks to AMRS (if SRNE is not included). SRNE in total is now up 23.5% (or about 1.1K - initial investment was just under £5K) for me.

adindas

Did anyone manage to make huge profit on OCGN (Ocugen). I was up 670% yesterday in less than a month

I sold half my position yesterday.