Why Optimer Pharmaceuticals Is Poised to Pull Back

Updated

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, biopharmaceutical company Optimer Pharmaceuticals has received the dreaded one-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Optimer and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Optimerfacts

Headquarters (founded)

San Diego, Calif. (1998)

Market Cap

$599.0 million

Industry

Pharmaceuticals

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$101.5 million

Management

Chairman/CEO Henry McKinnell
CFO Stephen Webster

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

(47.3%)

Cash/Debt

$124.0 million / $0

Competitors

Bayer
Pfizer
Sanofi


Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 27% of the 149 members who have rated Optimer believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just last week, one of those Fools, All-Star zzlangerhans, succinctly summed up the bear case for our community:

Optimer stock is weathering yet another quarter of disappointing Dificid revenues by floating the old "strategic alternatives " flag. Sometimes the sale happens, more often than not it doesn't. I remember that tactic didn't work out very well for [Savient Pharmaceuticals]. Dificid has been a confusing underperformer, given that clostridium difficile infection continues to be a crisis in the US health care system and the available therapeutics are clearly insufficient. Perhaps a larger pharma feels like they have the skills to make Dificid more profitable, but I suspect antibiotics are a relatively low priority for most of those companies. Even if a buyout does occur, I think it will take long enough that most of the short-term momo traders will get bored and exit.

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The article Why Optimer Pharmaceuticals Is Poised to Pull Back originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Brian Pacampara has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks 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 Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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