5 Stocks Poised for Breakouts

Alexion Pharmaceuticals

Another name in the biotechnology and drugs complex that looks ready to trigger a major breakout trade is Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN), which is focused on serving patients with severe and ultra-rare disorders through the development and commercialization of life-transforming therapeutic products. This stock is off to a decent start in 2012, with shares up around 30%.

If you look at the chart for Alexion Pharmaceuticals, you'll see that this stock has been uptrending strong for most of 2012, with shares skyrocketing from a low of $62.50 to a high of $95.01 a share. That uptrend was briefly broken earlier this month when shares of Alexion moved back below its 50-day moving average of $90.04 a share, and traded to a recent low of $81.28 a share. Following that move, this stock was able to find buying interest around $81.28 to $82.95 a share, and since then it has moved back above its 50-day moving average. Now this stock is quickly pushing within range of triggering a major breakout trade.

Market players should now look for long-biased trades if ALXN can manage to take out some near-term overhead resistance at $94.36 to $95.01 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that's near or above its three-month average action of 1.7 million shares. If we get that action soon, then look ALXN to easily trade north of $100 a share in the near future.

On Thursday, over 24.4 million shares traded as ALXN closed up 2.5% to $93.10 a share. And just this morning, news has broken that ALXN has priced a public offering of 5 million shares of common stock at a price to the public of $93.02 a share. The net proceeds to Alexion, after deducting the underwriting discount and other estimated expenses, are expected to be around $462 million.

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