Be Wary of These Five Tanking Stocks Today, Office Depot Among Them

Profit Taking at PTC Therapeutics

PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTCT) is a victim of short-term profit taking today, as its stock is 8.5% lower on no fundamental news. Shares of the biotech surged 42% on April 15 when UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended the company’s lead drug candidate, Translarna, for certain types of nonsense mutation Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The FDA on the other hand stated that the company’s application of Translarna wasn’t complete enough for a substantive review in February. The number of smart money funds with holdings in PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTCT) fell by half during the fourth quarter, to 14 by the end of December.

Office Depot Shares Down on Uncertainty

Office Depot Inc (NASDAQ:ODP) shares have retreated by 5% as the FTC’s case against the company’s potential merger with Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLS) nears its conclusion. The FTC is adamantly against the merger, as the agency believes the combination of the two companies will hurt consumers in the enterprise supply market. Proponents of the merger have argued that rising competition from e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will render the FTC’s concerns invalid. Closing arguments in the FTC’s antitrust challenge to the merger have apparently been heard and a decision whether to issue a preliminary injunction to block the merger will soon be made. Paul Singer‘s Elliott Management owned more than 13 million shares of Office Depot Inc (NASDAQ:ODP) at the end of December, up by almost 50% from the end of September.

Technical Traders Selling Ironwood

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) shares are 4.5% lower today on technical selling. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD)’s stock recently pierced through some key moving averages and has lost a lot of its medium-term momentum. Not helping matters is the fact that the iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index is down on the day. Of the 786 active funds we track, 20 of them owned $308.64 million of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD)’s shares, accounting for 18.60% of the float on December 31, up from 17 funds with $261.69 million in shares on September 30.

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