A small-capitalization healthcare sector ETF climbed Friday after Nektar Therapeutics (NasdaqGS: NKTR) and ICU Medical (NasdaqGS: ICUI) posted their fourth quarter results.
The PowerShares S&P SmallCap Health Care Portfolio (NasdaqGS: PSCH) focuses more on smaller companies, was among the best performing non-leveraged, U.S.-listed ETFs on Friday, jumping 4.2%.
Lifting the small-cap healthcare ETF, Nektar Therapeutic shares surged 21.8% after revealing better-than-expected revenue of $95.5 million, compared to Wall Street expectations of $31.5 million and Q4 2016 revenue of $37.5 million..
“This past year was truly transformational for Nektar as we achieved a number of successes with Nektar medicines across our three key therapeutic areas of immuno-oncology, immunology and pain,” Howard W. Robin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nektar, said in a note.
Investors also remain hopeful of the company’s future as Nektar recently signed a lucrative partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) that came with an upfront down-payment of $1.85 billion, along with potential blockbuster drugs in its pipeline.
PSCH’s largest single component holding is NKTR at 12.0% of the fund ‘s portfolio.
Furthermore, ICU Medical rallied to anew high after raising its guidance. The company reported fourth quarter adjusted earnings-per-share of $2.98 after the bell Thursday and raised its full year 2018 EPS projections to between $6.60 and $7.30. Its fourth quarter 2017 revenue was $370.1 million, compared to $95.7 million for the same period in the prior year.
“Fourth quarter revenues, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted diluted earnings per share were slightly above our expectations,” Vivek Jain, ICU Medical’s Chief Executive Officer, said in a note.
PSCH also includes a 3.0% tilt toward ICUI.
The PowerShares S&P SmallCap Health Care Portfolio is designed to measure the performance of the health care portion of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, which includes those engaged in the business of providing healthcare-related equipment and services 33.7%, healthcare providers & services 23.3%, pharmaceuticals 21.8%, biotech 15.0%, healthcare technologies 4.0% and life sciences tools & services 2.2%.
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