Top Health Care Stocks

JNJ +0.63%

PZE +0.26%

MRK +0.68%

ABT +0.60%

AMGN -0.55%

Health care stocks were moderately higher Thursday with the NYSE Health Care Sector Index climbing 0.4% and shares of health care companies in the S&P 500 also gaining about 0.4% as a group.

In company news, Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. ( CNAT ) tumbled Thursday after today pricing a $20.1 million public offering of 3.5 million shares of its common stock at $5.75 apiece, a 15.6% discount to Wednesday's closing price for the stock.

The company also issued 30-day options to underwriters to buy up to 525,000 more shares to cover possible overallotments. It expects to use net proceeds to fund clinical trials of its emricasan drug candidate, including preparation for registration trials of the experimental liver treatment.

CNAT shares recently were down over 11% at $6.08 each, or just 8 cents above their low for the session. The stock has traded within a 52-week range of $5.06 to $11.74 a share, already slipping more than 10% before today's slide.

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Health Care Sector Update for 04/02/2015: CNAT,RPRX,OCRX