2015 Top Stock Picks: PRTA, AMBA, RMBS

If you’ve been following our Money Morning 2015 top stock picks, you may notice a big shakeup from last week.

That’s right, some of the best biotech stocks to buy right now are “only” up somewhere between 30% and 50%.

We say “only up” because despite biotech’s extraordinary gains this year, last week biotech stocks were ravaged.

The Nasdaq fell 3% the week after it hit 15-year highs. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index fell a devastating 8% on the week. But this massive sell-off is hardly a cause for concern. And it certainly shouldn’t scare you out of this sector.

2015 Top Stock Picks: Biotech Sell-Off Overblown

"The sell-off we're seeing now seems to happen every year at about this time, like clockwork," Money Morning Biotech Investing Specialist Ernie Tremblay said. "There are always things going on in the news that seem to explain the drop, but the meta-picture is simply this: The market breathes in, and the market breathes out."

Companies that topped our list last week like Prothena Corp. Plc. (Nasdaq: PRTA) and Lannett Company Inc. (NYSE: LCI) are down big this week. PRTA stock is down 13.2% this week, while LCI stock is down 14.7%.

That sounds bad, but if you had bought both at the end of 2014, you’d still be up 56.1% on PRTA stock and 34.1% on LCI stock.

Here’s a look at the best 10 performers for 2015 among our top stock picks, with PRTA still leading the pack. But semiconductor companies like Ambarella Inc. (Nasdaq: AMBA), Skyworks Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq: SWKS), and Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq: RMBS) are proving to have a productive 2015 as well.

Money Morning's Top Stocks 2015

After an impressive start to the year, biotech stocks got slammed last week. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down about 3%, while the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index was down a crushing 8%. Despite this selloff, biotech is still a top performing sector in 2015.

Here are our top 10 for year-to-date gains as of the April 30 close.

Don’t flee from biotech, embrace it! Take a look at our new stocks to buy list, which includes biotech, oil and gold picks…