Last Call: Sequenom hits 6-year high

The stock is up 67.6 percent since June 3, the day before Sequenom said the SEQureDX test was effective in all 200 tested samples, with no false positives. The company said it plans to start a larger study later this year and launch the product in early 2009.

The stock rose $2.10, or 16.4 percent, to finish at $14.94, and earlier peaked at $15.25, its highest value since May 28, 2002. Shares have tripled in value since August.

Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday showed that Boston-based RA Capital Mangement's Biotech Fund bought 622,000 shares of Sequenom. According to Capital IQ, the company owned about 5.4 million shares, or a 12 percent stake in Sequenom, as of June 2.

Overall, trading was almost seven times heavier than average.

In a telephone interview, Oppenheimer analyst Kevin DeGeeter said that since the Down syndrome data was reported, "you have a number of institutions here that have bought significant shares."

In a Thursday client note, DeGeeter said SEQureDX is one of three highly profitable tests the company should launch over the next year. The others are tests that identify the gender of a fetus and identify RhD incompatibility.

Those products will help make Sequenom profitable by late 2009, he said.