Banked some IQE profit for Motif Bio purchase

I've got a day off work today so have been poring over my portfolio.

One of my most promising recent purchases is MTFB:Motif Bio which completed successful phase III trials of a new antibiotic called Iclaprim last year. The news that really excited me was back in September, when it was announced that Iclaprim had been given orphan drug designation by US FDA for treatment of staphylococcus aureus lung infections in patients with cystic fibrosis.This has the potential to speed up approval of the drug, as well as offering many other incentives, not to mention the possibility of saving the lives of many cystic fibrosis sufferers.

I initially purchased 3,411 shares last August at 28.9638p and they did really well, especially after announcement of the successful phase III trials, peaking at 45p in early October. Since then they have been up and down a few times, sinking to 30p in late November before recovering to around 42p in early January. Since then the price has drifted to the point where I felt the need to buy some more.

This morning I purchased 3,827 at 34.4008p costing £1,328.47 taking my total to 7,238 on a weighted average of 31.84p. They are currently making paper profit of £109 (5%) so still in the black, but in need of some news to get things moving.

In order to make the purchase I needed to sell something, and today seemed the ideal time to bank a small profit from my 92p IQE:IQE purchase last week. I sold 1,244 of the 4,200 shares I bought last week at 107.21p which gave me a 14% profit in a week. Thanks for the opportunity shorters!

For my reporting, I work on weighted averages, so when combined with my other ISA holding, the weighted average cost price is 58.93p resulting in a profit of £576.76 (76.1%). This liberated £1,321.74 towards the MTFB:Motif Bio purchase.

The sale has helped my performance stats, with forecast average monthly profit in year 3 increasing from £168 to £261 (assuming I maintain current form) and actual monthly profits since I started 131 weeks ago increasing from £292 to £311 (8.2%)

I'm still left with 10,000 IQE:IQE shares in my ISA making paper profit of £4,065 (80%) and 1,809 shares in my SIPP making a loss of £466 (20%) so could do with the price recovering to 140p before I consider any further top-slice in the ISA. The company makes up 18.1% of my portfolio value, so I have quite a bit of pruning to get back to my ideal 10%.

I was originally planning to wait until 140p to take any IQE:IQE profit, but the MTFB:Motif Bio price drop was too much of a temptation and my realised profit stats needed a bit of a boost.

Elsewhere there seems to be a mini recovery underway today. Nowhere near enough to correct the carnage from last week, but enough to spark a glimmer of hope.