Why Incyte Shares Surged

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 biotechnology company Incyte popped 11% today after its quarterly results and guidance impressed Wall Street.

So what: Incyte's fourth-quarter results -- EPS of $0.14 on revenue of $113.9 million versus a loss of $0.44 and a top-line of $28.9 million in the year-ago period -- and outlook were so strong that analysts have no choice but to raise their price targets. In fact, net product revenues for its main blood cancer drug Jakafi surged to $43.3 million from just $2 million in the year-ago period, giving Wall Street plenty of good vibes over the treatment's adoption rate going forward.

Now what: Management now expects full-year 2013 net product revenues of $210 million-$225 million.

"This range reflects our expectations of the ongoing evolution of the myelofibrosis market including more physicians initiating Jakafi; renew appropriate patients and more physicians and patients successfully continuing Jakafi therapy as long as they experience clinical benefit," said CEO Paul Friedman in a conference call with analysts.

Of course, with the stock now up about 30% over the past two months alone, much of that optimism might already be baked into the price.

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The article Why Incyte Shares Surged originally appeared on Fool.com.

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