Why Akorn Inc. Shares Popped

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 Akorn, Inc. , a branded and generic pharmaceutical drugmaker, rose as much as 15% after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter earnings results.

So what: As you might imagine from the move higher, investors are pretty pleased with Akorn for delivering a 22% increase in revenue to $77 million and an adjusted profit of $0.14 per share. Comparatively speaking, the Street had only been looking for the company to report a profit of $0.12 per share on $75.6 million in sales. The results were still mixed, though, with sales volumes of new and existing products providing the revenue bump, but average selling prices of existing items and weaker sales in its Indian subsidiary weighing them down. Still, Akorn was able to reaffirm its full-year guidance, calling for revenue in a range of $305 million to $315 million with EPS of $0.53-$0.55. Both are in line with Wall Street's forecast.

Now what: If you're the type of investor that wishes you'd gotten in on Pfizer back in the 1990s, then Akorn could be just the company you're looking for. Akorn is a hybrid pharmaceutical company, like Teva Pharmaceutical, in that it develops exclusive branded drug, as well as maintains a rapidly growing generic drug portfolio. Keep in mind that Akorn earlier this year stated its intentions to bring 39 branded and generic drugs to market between 2013 and 2015 representing a total market value of $3 billion. There could potentially be a lot of upside left in this company if its margins don't get too pressured by competition abroad. I'd strongly recommend adding it to your watchlist and keeping an eye on Akorn.

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