Tuesday's Health Winners & Losers

Updated from 2:55 p.m. EDT with new stock prices

Health stocks were flat to slightly higher on Tuesday amid one drug disappointment and multiple analyst actions.

Accentia Biopharmaceuticals(ABPI Quote) shares plunged 67.6% after the company said it won't move forward with its development of the drug SinuNase, a candidate for chronic sinusitis. Accentia said SinuNase didn't meet goals in a late-stage clinical trial, showing no more effectiveness than a placebo.

The company said it will meet with the FDA to design a pump spray study, exploring an area where it did see effectiveness.

Subsequently, Jefferies & Co. downgraded the stock to underperform from buy and lowered its price target to 55 cents from $7. Rodman & Renshaw downgraded the stock to market perform from market outperform. Shares of Accentia plummeted $2.02 to 97 cents.

Elsewhere, Punk Ziegel initiated coverage on biopharmaceutical company Xoma(XOMA Quote) with a buy rating and a $3.75 price target. Shares jumped 35 cents, or 13.9%, to $2.87.

Xoma is a component of the Nasdaq biotechnology index, which was up 5.85, or 0.8%, at 778.15.

It's also a component of exchange traded fund HealthShares Emerging Cancer(HHJ Quote), which is down 15.5% for the past three months and lost 8 cents, or 0.5%, to $14.86, on Tuesday.

Allos Therapeutics(ALTH Quote) was higher by 37 cents, or 5.9%, to $6.64.

Among other analyst actions, Credit Suisse downgraded Unitedhealth Group(UNH Quote) to neutral from outperform, chopping its price target to $38 from $65. Shares declined 39 cents, or 1.1%, to $35.32. Insurance peer Coventry Healthcare(CVH Quote) gave up 1.9%.

Symmetry Medical(SMA Quote) continued to decline after Monday's downgrade from Wachovia Capital Markets analyst Michael Matson, who lowered his rating on the stock to market perform from outperform. Matson believes that the orthopedic-implant maker could see lower profit margins in 2008.

After falling as much as 7% Monday, only to recover and close in the green, Symmetry shares recently were down $2.48, or 13.3%, to $16.13.