Business

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, January 1, 2008 2007 a good year for Seattle Genetics By Eric Fetters Herald Writer Seattle Genetics' investors and employees can celebrate a big gain in the company's stock price during the past year, but 2007 was one to forget for most locally based public companies. Only three of the 13 Snohomish County companies traded on major stock markets ended 2007 with higher share prices than a year ago. Seven companies ended the year with their stocks trading at least 20 percent lower. Seattle Genetics blew away all other local stocks with a gain of 114 percent, or more than $6 a share, for the year. SonoSite, the maker of hand-carried ultrasound machines, and Cardiac Science, which makes heart defibrillators and monitoring equipment, were the only other gainers for the year. In fact, it was the worst year ever for the Abarim Snohomish County Stock Index, which was created in late 1994 by Tim Raetzloff, who owns an Edmonds computer business. The index was down nearly 30 percent for the year, easily eclipsing 1998's bad Wall Street performance for local companies. The market value of public companies based here also fell 33 percent during the year, taking a big hit with the $2.3 billion buyout of ICOS Corp., the Bothell biotechnology firm that sold to Eli Lilly & Co. last January. ICOS perennially was one of the two most valuable public companies in Snohomish County. Seattle Genetics increasingly seems poised to fill the void left by ICOS. The Bothell-based developer of potential cancer-fighting drugs ended 2007 with a market value of almost $768 million, making it the county's third most valuable public company. Intermec Inc. and Frontier Financial of Everett are larger. Zumiez Inc. of Everett, which has seen its stock price multiply dramatically since its 2005 debut as a public company, ended with its first down year on Wall Street. That was due mostly to investor worries in the fourth quarter about the teen retailer's sales figures. All three bank stocks based in Snohomish County were down as the banking sector wrestled with the mortgage crisis and credit crunch this past year. Sonus Pharmaceuticals of Bothell saw the biggest stock drop. After its promising chemotherapy drug failed in late-stage clinical trials, the company's shares tanked, finishing the year 93 percent lower. The mostly negative stock market performances among local companies largely reflect what's happened nationally during recent months. The Dow Jones industrials fell another 101 points Monday to finish with its worst fourth-quarter drop during the past 20 years. Thanks to a good first half of the year, however, the Dow posted a respectable increase of 6.43 percent for the year. The Standard & Poor's 500 index and the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index also posted annual gains for the fifth straight year. "Considering all that's going on, the market really acted pretty well," said Todd Leone, managing director of equity trading at Cowen & Co. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.

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