Should You Keep Your Portfolio Healthy With Biotech ETFs?

By Zacks Investment ResearchStock MarketsSep 12, 2017 03:08AM ET

www.investing.com/analysis/should-you-keep-your-portfolio-healthy-with-biotech-etfs-200212886

Should You Keep Your Portfolio Healthy With Biotech ETFs?

By Zacks Investment Research | Sep 12, 2017 03:08AM ET

Saved. See Saved Items.

This article has already been saved in your Saved Items

The biotech sector is going through the roof right now with SPDR S&P Biotech (MX:XBI) ETF XBI adding over 9% in a month (as of Sep 11, 2017). Plenty of factors are powering the sector. Among these, breakthrough U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals, success in the immune-oncology field, and mergers and acquisitions are at the forefront.

Biotech stock Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) received a new FDA approval for cystic fibrosis drug, Kalydeco. In early September, FDA approved “Novartis AG' breakthrough gene transfer treatment, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) suspension for the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia that is refractory or in second or later relapse,” as per the source.

Investors should note that CAR-T is a fresh immunocellular therapy and many companies are eyeing it. In fact, Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) announced the buyout of Kite Pharma (NYSE:K) for $11.9 billion in late August (read: Biotech ETFs Soar on Gilead-Kite Deal). Kite Pharma is expected to receive approval for its CAR-T therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) shortly. With this acquisition, Gilead will step into the new arena of oncology treatment, known as CAR-T, which targets the body’s own immune system to fight tumors.

Two months ago, Clovis Oncology (NASDAQ:CLVS) shares also skyrocketed following the company’s positive cancer drug data. The company then said that clinical trial data on its ovarian cancer drug treatment indicated that it may substantially help more patients than expected (read: 4 Stocks & ETFs to Buy on Clovis' Positive Drug Data).

If this was not enough, Teva Pharmaceutical (NYSE:TEVA) TEVA shares surged over 19% on Sep 11 as it appointed a former Novo Nordisk (CO:NOVOb) (NVO) as CEO. The new recruitment followed Teva’s last full-time CEO’s seven-month term and resignation amid a bribery scandal.

Compelling Valuation

Biotech stocks were the most hurt among the S&P 500 members last year. This has probably made the space cheap and helped it to be back with a bang. Biotech ETF XBI added about 17.7% in the last three months (as of Sep 11, 2017) while SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY) (AX:SPY) was up 2.9%. The fund XBI has a relative strength index of 66.95. This means that the fund is yet to enter the overbought territory.

Also, fears over price gouging are ebbing substantially in the Trump administration. In a nutshell, the space is riding on research and development and may log more returns ahead.

ETFs to Tap

Below we highlight a few biotech ETFs that can benefit investors with solid gains (see all Health Care ETFs here).

Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X LABU

Ultrapro Nasdaq Biotechnology Proshares UBIO

ProShares Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology BIB

iShare Nasdaq Biotech ETF IBB

Bioshares Biotech Clinical Trial (HM:BBC)

VanEck Vectors Biotech ETF (LON:BBH)

Bioshares Biotech Products (BS:BBP)

Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF CNCR

ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF (SI:SBIO)

Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?

Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >>

Why Intel 18A Is a Make-or-Break Moment for the Chipmaker By Timothy Fries - Mar 03, 2025 1

Two weeks ago, the rumor mill ramped up again about the potential restructuring of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC). The probing balloons centered around Taiwan Semiconductor...

Trade Wars Come With a Price, and Investors May Already Be Paying It By Frank Holmes - Mar 03, 2025 3

More than a century ago, then-Representative William McKinley pursued an aggressive tariff strategy that sought to protect American industry and reduce reliance on foreign...

1 Value, 1 Growth, and 1 Momentum Stock for Diversification By Nathan Reiff - Mar 03, 2025

Early in 2025, value stocks emerged as a popular choice among investors seeking market-beating returns. However, factor-based investing strategies can be notoriously difficult to...

Add a Comment

We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:

Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Use standard writing style. Include punctuation and upper and lower cases. Comments that are written in all caps and contain excessive use of symbols will be removed.
NOTE: Spam and/or promotional messages and comments containing links will be removed. Phone numbers, email addresses, links to personal or business websites, Skype/Telegram/WhatsApp etc. addresses (including links to groups) will also be removed; self-promotional material or business-related solicitations or PR (ie, contact me for signals/advice etc.), and/or any other comment that contains personal contact specifcs or advertising will be removed as well. In addition, any of the above-mentioned violations may result in suspension of your account.
Doxxing. We do not allow any sharing of private or personal contact or other information about any individual or organization. This will result in immediate suspension of the commentor and his or her account.
Don’t monopolize the conversation. We appreciate passion and conviction, but we also strongly believe in giving everyone a chance to air their point of view. Therefore, in addition to civil interaction, we expect commenters to offer their opinions succinctly and thoughtfully, but not so repeatedly that others are annoyed or offended. If we receive complaints about individuals who take over a thread or forum, we reserve the right to ban them from the site, without recourse.
Only English comments will be allowed.
Any comment you publish, together with your investing.com profile, will be public on investing.com and may be indexed and available through third party search engines, such as Google.

Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.

I have read Investing.com's comments guidelines and agree to the terms described.

I Agree

Write your thoughts here

Are you sure you want to delete this chart?

Delete Cancel

Post

Post also to:

Replace the attached chart with a new chart ?

Replace Cancel

1000

Comment Guidelines

Your ability to comment is currently suspended due to negative user reports. Your status will be reviewed by our moderators.

Please wait a minute before you try to comment again.

Thanks for your comment. Please note that all comments are pending until approved by our moderators. It may therefore take some time before it appears on our website.

<div id="comment">
				<div class="comment js-comment" data-comment-id="{commentID}" id="comment-{commentID}" data-user-id="">
    <div class="mainComment js-content">
       <div class="commentInnerWrapper">
        <a href="{userLink}" class="js-user-link"><img src="{userImage}" width="33" height="33" alt="{usernameAlt}" class="img" onerror="this.src='https://i-invdn-com.investing.com/defaultUserMaleTmp.png';"></a><div class="commentBody">
                					<span class="commentUsername">
                    	<a href="{userLink}" class="js-user-link js-user-name">{username}</a>
					</span>
                                <span class="js-date" comment-date="{dateFormat}" comment-date-formatted="{dateFormatted}" title="{dateTitle}">Just Now</span>
                <div class="commentDropDown js-commentDropDownWrapper " data-user-id="" data-cid="{commentID}">
	<a href="javascript:void(0);" class="threeDotsIconSmall js-thinDropdownArrow"></a>
	<div class="tooltipPopup commentActionsPop noHeader js-commentDropDownOptions displayNone">
		<div class="addRow js-option share">
			<a href="javascript:void(0);" class="js-commentSharePopup" data-cid="{commentID}" data-curl="{commentLink}"><span class="smallShareIcon middle"></span>Share</a>
		</div>

<div class="js-option addRow follow">
            <div class="js-follow-post-button" data-reg_ep="follow comment">
                <span class="alertfollowIcon middle"></span>Follow this post            </div>
            <div class="js-unfollow-post-button displayNoneImp">
                <span class="alertUnfollowIcon middle"></span>Unfollow this post            </div>
        </div>

<div class="addRow js-option save"  data-reg_ep="save comment">
		<a href="javascript:void(0);" class="js-save-item-btn" data-item-type="comments" data-item-id="{commentID}">
			<i class="saveItemBigIcon middle"></i>
			Save		</a>
	</div>
	<div class="addRow saveItemsConfirmation noHover displayNone js-saveItemResult">
		
<div class="content js-saveItemSuccess displayNone">
	<span class="mediumGreenSuccessIcon"></span><span>Saved. See <a href="/members-admin/saved-items" target="_blank">Saved Items</a>.</span>
	<a href="javascript:void(0);" class="bugCloseIcon js-close"></a>
</div>
<div class="content js-saveItemAlreadySaved saveItemAlreadySaved displayNoneImp">
	<span>This comment has already been saved in your <a href="/members-admin/saved-items" target="_blank">Saved Items</a></span>
	<a href="javascript:void(0);" class="bugCloseIcon js-close"></a>
</div>
	</div>

<div class="addRow shareButtons js-sharePopup displayNone">
			<div class="js-shareComment"><span class="js-shareCommentSpan"></span></div>
		</div>
	</div>
</div>
                 <div class="commentAuthor js-comment-by-author"><span class="commentAuthorIcon"></span>Author's response</div>             </div>
		<div id="commentText-{commentID}" class="js-text-wrapper commentText withImage">
							<div id="commentBigChart{commentID}" class="commentBigChart js-comment-chart" onclick="openViewChartPopup('{commentID}')">
					<img src="https://d1-invdn-com.investing.com/comments_images/{commentImage}" alt="{commentAlt}">
					<i class="newMagnifyChartIcon"></i>
				</div>
						<span class="js-text">{commentContent}</span>
			<div class="clear"></div>
							<div class="commentButtons js-not-master-user">
					<a href="javascript:void(0)" class="reply js-reply-btn" data-real-parent-id="{commentID}" data-to-user-name="{username}" data-to-user-id="">Reply</a>
					<div class="inlineblock likeDislikeBox js-like-dislike-box" data-item-id="{commentID}">
	<input class="js-like-checkbox" type="checkbox" name="option" value="Yes" id="like_{commentID}">
	<label for="like_{commentID}" class="like" title="I agree"></label>
	<span class="numOfLikes js-like-count lighterGrayFont">0</span>
	<input class="js-dislike-checkbox" type="checkbox" name="option" value="No" id="dislike_{commentID}">
	<label for="dislike_{commentID}" class="dislike" title="I disagree"></label>
	<span class="numOfDislikes js-dislike-count lighterGrayFont">0</span>
</div>

<div class="reportComment js-flag float_lang_base_2">
                            <a href="javascript:void(0);" id="commentFlag_{commentID}">
                                <span class="reportCommentIcon middle"></span><span class="inlineblock middle">Report</span>
                            </a>
                        </div>
                    				</div>
					</div>
	   </div>
	</div>
	</div>			</div>
			<div id="reply">
				
    <div class="commentReply js-comment js-comment-reply" data-comment-id="{commentID}" id="comment-{commentID}" data-user-id="">
		<div class="commentInnerWrapper"><a href="{userLink}" class="js-user-link"><img src="{userImage}" width="33" height="33" alt="{usernameAlt}" class="img" onerror="this.src='https://i-invdn-com.investing.com/defaultUserMaleTmp.png';"></a><div class="commentBody js-content">
            				<span class="commentUsername">
					<a href="{userLink}" class="commentUsername js-user-link js-user-name" onMouseOver="">{username}</a>
				</span>
                        <span class="js-date" comment-date="{dateFormat}" comment-date-formatted="{dateFormatted}" title="{dateTitle}">Just Now</span>
			 <div class="commentAuthor js-comment-by-author"><span class="commentAuthorIcon"></span>Author's response</div> 			<div class="commentDropDown js-commentDropDownWrapper " data-user-id="" data-cid="{commentID}">
	<a href="javascript:void(0);" class="threeDotsIconSmall js-thinDropdownArrow"></a>
	<div class="tooltipPopup commentActionsPop noHeader js-commentDropDownOptions displayNone">
		<div class="addRow js-option share">
			<a href="javascript:void(0);" class="js-commentSharePopup" data-cid="{commentID}" data-curl="{commentLink}"><span class="smallShareIcon middle"></span>Share</a>
		</div>

</div>
		<div id="commentText-{commentID}" class="js-text-wrapper commentText withImage">
							<div id="commentBigChart{commentID}" class="replyBigChart displayNone js-comment-chart">
					<img src="https://d1-invdn-com.investing.com/comments_images/{commentImage}" alt="{commentAlt}">
					<i class="newMagnifyChartIcon"></i>
				</div>
				<span id="commentSmallChart{commentID}" class="commentSmallChart pointer js-comment-chart" onclick="openViewChartPopup('{commentID}')">
                    <img src="https://d1-invdn-com.investing.com/comments_images/{commentImageSmall}" width="116" height="52" alt="{commentAlt}">
                    <span class="chartMagnifyOverlay displayNone"></span>
                    <span class="searchGlassIcon chartMagnify displayNone"></span>
                </span>
						<span class="js-text">{commentContent}</span>
			<div class="clear"></div>
							<div class="commentButtons js-not-master-user">
					<a href="javascript:void(0)" class="reply js-reply-btn" data-real-parent-id="{commentID}" data-to-user-name="{username}" data-to-user-id="">Reply</a>
					<div class="inlineblock likeDislikeBox js-like-dislike-box" data-item-id="{commentID}">
	<input class="js-like-checkbox" type="checkbox" name="option" value="Yes" id="like_{commentID}">
	<label for="like_{commentID}" class="like" title="I agree"></label>
	<span class="numOfLikes js-like-count lighterGrayFont">0</span>
	<input class="js-dislike-checkbox" type="checkbox" name="option" value="No" id="dislike_{commentID}">
	<label for="dislike_{commentID}" class="dislike" title="I disagree"></label>
	<span class="numOfDislikes js-dislike-count lighterGrayFont">0</span>
</div>

Are you sure you want to delete this chart?

Delete Cancel

Post

Replace the attached chart with a new chart ?

Replace Cancel

1000

Comment Guidelines

Your ability to comment is currently suspended due to negative user reports. Your status will be reviewed by our moderators.

Please wait a minute before you try to comment again.

I feel that this comment is:

Spam

Offensive

Thank You!

Your report has been sent to our moderators for review

Central Banks

Interest Rates

Next Meeting

FED

4.50%

Mar 19, 2025

ECB

2.90%

Mar 06, 2025

BOE

4.50%

Mar 20, 2025

SNB

0.50%

Mar 20, 2025

RBA

4.10%

Apr 01, 2025

BOC

3.00%

Mar 12, 2025

RBNZ

3.75%

Apr 09, 2025

BOJ

0.50%

Mar 19, 2025

CBR

21.00%

Mar 21, 2025

RBI

6.25%

Mar 10, 2025

PBOC

3.10%

BCB

13.25%

Mar 19, 2025

US 30	43,227.5	+35.5	+0.08%
US 500	5,861.3	+11.4	+0.20%
Dow Jones	43,191.24	-649.67	-1.48%
S&P 500	5,849.72	-104.78	-1.76%
Nasdaq	18,350.19	-497.09	-2.64%
S&P 500 VIX	22.78	+3.15	+16.05%
Dollar Index	106.525	-0.144	-0.13%

Crude Oil WTI	68.19	-0.18	-0.26%
Brent Oil	71.22	-0.40	-0.56%
Natural Gas	4.147	-0.017	-0.41%
Gold	2,901.35	+0.25	+0.01%
Silver	32.200	-0.110	-0.34%
Copper	4.5890	-0.0018	-0.04%
US Soybeans	1,010.88	+0.13	+0.01%

U.S. 10Y	4.144	-0.036	-0.86%
U.S. 30Y	4.449	-0.015	-0.34%
U.S. 5Y	3.943	-0.046	-1.15%
U.S. 3M	4.310	+0.006	+0.14%
US 10Y T-Note	111.67	+0.30	+0.27%
Euro Bund	131.59	+0.48	+0.37%
10-2 Yield Spread	21.37	+0.32	+1.52%

Apple	238.03	-3.81	-1.58%
Alphabet A	167.01	-3.27	-1.92%
Tesla	284.65	-8.33	-2.84%
Amazon.com	205.02	-7.26	-3.42%
Netflix	973.70	-6.86	-0.70%
Meta Platforms	655.05	-13.15	-1.97%
Bank of America	45.56	-0.54	-1.17%

Should You Keep Your Portfolio Healthy With Biotech ETFs?

Related Articles