Why Zogenix, Farmer Bros., and CalAmp Jumped Today

The week on Wall Street ended on a sunny note Friday, with broad-based benchmarks posting modest gains as the third quarter came to a close. Market participants continued to react positively to Thursday's news that U.S. gross domestic product was higher by 3.1% in the second quarter, and investors seemed content to close another favorable quarter in which the S&P 500 picked up 4%, bringing its year-to-date returns to 12.5%. Some good news from certain individual stocks also added to the overall positive mood among investors. Zogenix (NASDAQ: ZGNX), Farmer Bros. (NASDAQ: FARM), and CalAmp (NASDAQ: CAMP) were among the best performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so well.

Shares of Zogenix skyrocketed by 172% after the small biotech company reported favorable results in a study of its Dravet syndrome drug ZX008. The rare disease is a severe type of pediatric epilepsy, and Zogenix said that its phase 3 study met the primary objective of demonstrating that ZX008 is a superior treatment compared to a placebo based on the frequency of convulsive seizures observed. A smaller dosage also resulted in reduced seizure frequency, but the reduction was only about half as big as the larger dosage indicated. CEO Stephen Farr said that Zogenix expects further data from a second study in the first half of 2018, at which point investors hope that the orphan drug will be able to take advantage of its fast-track designation to gain FDA approval.

Image source: Zogenix.

Source: Fool.com