What Happened?
Shares of genetic testing company Myriad Genetics (NASDAQ: MYGN) fell 3.8% in the afternoon session after weakness in the healthcare sector became pronounced following a poor sales report from a key competitor. The negative sentiment was partly fueled by health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group, which reported a miss on its second-quarter earnings and issued a profit warning, casting a pall over the entire sector. More directly, NeoGenomics, a company also operating in the cancer diagnostics space, reported that it had missed its second-quarter sales targets. This news, which sent NeoGenomics' stock down significantly, suggested a potentially more challenging market environment for companies involved in oncology diagnostics, a core business for Myriad Genetics.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Myriad Genetics’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 33 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 11 days ago when the stock dropped 5.7% as several negative developments weighed on the sector. Weakness in managed care providers was a significant factor, with companies like Elevance Health and Humana seeing declines due to an analyst downgrade and a lost lawsuit regarding Medicare bonus payments, respectively. Additionally, some pharmaceutical and biotech companies experienced sharp drops following unfavorable news; for instance, Sarepta Therapeutics plunged after a report indicated another patient death tied to its experimental gene therapy, and GSK's blood cancer drug dosage was voted against by the FDA advisory committee. Broader market sentiment, including concerns about rising costs and inadequate pricing for 2025 plans among health insurers, also contributed to the downward pressure on healthcare equities.
Myriad Genetics is down 69.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $4.18 per share, it is trading 85.4% below its 52-week high of $28.60 from September 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Myriad Genetics’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $361.63.
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