Regeneron Shares Soared: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NAS: REGN) popped 13% today after the biotech raised its sales forecast for the eye drug Eylea.

So what: Regeneron's fourth-quarter loss widened, but a whopping 80% boost to its 2012 Eylea sales forecast is forcing analysts to raise their growth expectations significantly. With only 12 weeks of data, however, investors should be careful not to get overly excited about the market-trouncing outlook.

Now what: For 2012, Regeneron expects Eylea sales of $250 million-$300 million, well above Wall Street's estimate of $173 million. However, with the stock having more than doubled since Eylea's approval, and with it up more than 200% over the past year, there already seems to be plenty of optimism baked into the price. Eylea still faces steep competition from Roche's lower-cost treatment Avastin, after all, so I'd wait for a much larger margin of safety before jumping in.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.

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