Healthcare Stocks: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Gorsky Staying on Boards, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ:TEVA) Declares Lousy Outlook

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) tapped Alex Gorsky, as its new chairman who recently became chief executive, finishing a leadership change for the health-care tycoon as its previous leader, William Weldon, intends to retire in 2013.

Mr. Gorsky, who came in place of Mr. Weldon as CEO in April, would become chairman Dec. 28, and Mr. Weldon would retire in the initial quarter of 2013, after a brief transition phase, the company reported.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) reported the gain of +0.74% and closed at $69.73 with the total traded volume of 13.48 million shares. JNJ has trailing twelve months’ earnings per share of $3.04 and its price to earnings ratio stands at 22.91.

Zogenix (NASDAQ:ZGNX) witnesses a panel of FDA expert advisers who would give a decision about potential acceptance of Zohydro ER, a prolonged release cure for chronic pain. The FDA is predicted to make a ruling on market approval of the drug by March 1.

Zogenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZGNX) surged +1.54% with the closing price of $2.64. The overall volume in the last trading session was 890,803.00 shares. Its fifty two week range was $1.31-$3.30. The total market capitalization remained $265.76 million.

In its share capital ZGNX has 100.67 million outstanding shares while 99.62 million shares have been floated in market. ZGNX has insider ownership of 64.69% with its institutional ownership remained 77.24%. Company’s current year earnings per share grew with 88.86%.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) declared a sluggish earnings and revenue outlook for coming year, predicting a possibly decline from 2012 levels.

For this year, Teva reported that it anticipates revised per-share earnings in a range of $4.85 to $5.15 on sales of around $19.5 billion to $20.5 billion.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA) shares moved up +0.32% to close at $40.35 and its total traded volume during last trading session was 12.84 million shares.

TEVA has market capitalization of $35.02 million and its beta value stands at 0.35 times.  TEVA has current ratio of 1.41 and its debt-to-equity ratio was 0.60.

As of latest close, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PPHM) shares are up about 45.63% for 2012 and recently topped out a 52-week high of $5.50 (Sep 21, 2012). Since then, it has retreated 72.73% but stands 284.62% above 52-week low. The shares advanced above the 200-Day SMA ($1.40) and are now sitting 27.59% above 50-day SMA. The performance measured for the month was +72.41% and weekly performance appeared at +76.47%.

The price of Forest Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:FRX) moved up 2.54% and finished the day at $35.46 on above average volume. The day started out with a higher opening price of $34.85 versus prior close of $34.58. The total number of shares traded on the latest trading day was about 9.38 million shares, and changed hands at average prices of $34.68 to $35.46 apiece. The shares advanced about 17.18% since the start of 2012 and has a 2.31% gain in last three months. Narrowing down the performance period, the stock rose 5.19% for the month and a 6.42% gain over the week.