Genentech in Neutral

If Genentech(DNA Quote) is such a great biotech company, why is the stock spinning its wheels?

It's a good question, and one that will be on the minds of analysts and institutional investors as they gather on March 23 for Genentech's investor day in New York. The company's top management will offer a business outlook and give details of its drug research pipeline, including the first peek at new drugs being developed at the company's South San Francisco laboratories.

It remains to be seen whether Genentech's talk will get its stock moving again. Shares have been fairly range-bound for the past year, trading between the high $70s and mid-$80s for most of the past 12 months.

Genentech seemed poised to break out after reporting strong year-end results in early January, but the surge didn't hold. The stock closed Wednesday at $80.92, down 9% from its recent $89 high.

Right now, it seems as if little things are pecking away at Genentech. None by themselves is serious, but as a whole, they're enough to keep investors on edge:

• On Tuesday, GlaxoSmithkline(GSK Quote) received approval to market Tykerb, a new breast cancer drug that might give Genentech's Herceptin some competition.
• Last month, a lung cancer study showed that a lower dose of Genentech's Avastin worked just as well as a higher dose, raising worries that Avastin sales in lung cancer might be negatively affected.
• The company's stellar launch of Lucentis (an Avastin offshoot) as a treatment for age-related blindness has the drug looking like a billion-dollar blockbuster in its first full year on the market. But that revenue might be cut if eye doctors swap out Lucentis for a lower (and far less expensive) dose of Avastin.