Alcoa Inc (AA), F5 Networks, Inc. (FFIV) & More: Three Stocks to Get on Your Watchlist

This is particularly intriguing now both to Allergan, which purchased MAP Pharmaceuticals earlier this year for $958 million, and to Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR), which would gain royalties from the sale of Levadex due to its intellectual property contribution to the making of the drug.

My twist-my-arm opinion is that Levadex is going to gain approval and that it’ll be every bit the $500 million success that my Foolish colleague David Williamson talked about last year. Allergan shares have had an amazing run, and they could be just days from heading even higher.

F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)
Talk about a brake check! There weren’t too many that saw F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)’s somersault coming, but the question now remains whether or not it creates a buying opportunity in the company.

On Thursday last week, F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV), a process application delivery provider that helps route information more efficiently for networks, reported preliminary results for the second quarter that weren’t in the ballpark. Revenue and adjusted EPS were originally forecast at $370 million to $380 million and $1.21 to $1.24. F5’s preliminary guidance calls for $350.2 million and $1.06 to $1.07 in EPS… yuck! F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) blamed weakness in its North American operations (think U.S. government orders) and its European sales, while seeing continued strength elsewhere.

While I’d love to go so far as to say that this represents a buying opportunity — because we all know that F5 is led by an incredible CEO — I’d have to say that I’d much rather wait to see what F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has to say at its conference call with analysts. This would be the third straight quarter that F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has underperformed and could speak to the overreliance the company has on its North American business.

From a valuation perspective, the company is starting to look attractive, but I’d recommend treading lightly until we know more.

The article 3 Stocks to Get on Your Watchlist originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sean Williams.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of, and recommends, F5 Networks. It also owns shares of ArcelorMittal.

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