Health Winners & Losers: King Pharmaceuticals

Health stocks sank on Thursday, as earnings results disappointed investors.

The Nasdaq and Amex biotechnology indices were down 4% and 3.4%. The Amex Pharmaceutical Index gave up 4.13, or 1.3%, to 311.53, with every single component in red territory. Leading the pack, though, King Pharmaceuticals(KG) gave up 2.14, or 17.5%, to $10.11.

King said second quarter profit fell 34% to $43 million, or 18 cents a share, and 30 cents a share on an adjusted basis. Revenue fell 27% to $397 million. Sales of the company's blood pressure drug Altace fell 73% to $44 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had predicted 32 cents on $397 million.

More earnings, Anthrax vaccine maker Emergent BioSolutions(EBS) said profit rose to $1.8 million, or 6 cents a share, from a loss of 17 cents a share a year prior. Revenue was $43.5 million, while analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who typically factor out one-time items, were looking for 23 cents a share on revenue of $49.5 million.

Looking ahead, Emergent revised its guidance to have a bias toward the lower end of the $180 million to $195 million range. Shares gave up $3.35, or 24%, to $10.64.

Meanwhile, XenoPort(XNPT) shares fell $3.49, or 7.35, to $42.86, after the company reported a loss of $12.4 million, or 49 cents a share, vs. a profit of $13.5 million, or 52 cents a share in the year-prior period. Revenue fell 68% to $11.5 million.

Higher expenses took away from Alnylam's (ALNY) collaboration revenue. The company said Thursday that it lost $12.8 million, or 31 cents a share, on revenue of $23.8 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who typically factor out one time items, were looking for a loss of 15 cents a share on revenue of $22.5 million. Shares were down $1.73, or 4.8%, at $34.22.

Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) shares were also off $3.16 or 10.6%, at $26.77. The company priced a public offering of 4 million shares at $28.50 a share. Deutsche Bank Securities, the underwriter has the option to purchase an additional 600,000 shares to cover over-allotments. The biopharmaceutical company said it will use proceeds to conduct activities related to the filing of a new drug application and pre-marketing activities for Fampridin-SR, R&D and general corporate purposes.