Biotech giant Biogen Idec posted some disappointing third-quarter results, falling short of Wall Street expectations across the board.
Biogen shares on Tuesday lost $1.26, or 1.57 percent, at $78.85 on the Nasdaq.
Does it matter, since the company has announced it's up for sale? Biotech analyst Christopher Raymond of Robert W. Baird thinks it does.
"Any potential buyer is going to be looking for top-line growth, and this is obviously a huge swing and a miss here," Baird told "Squawk Box" on Tuesday morning. "People are looking at where the near-term growth is as a projector of where things will be in the longer term."
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn bought a small stake in Biogen in August, and has expressed an interest in buying the whole company, but Raymond doesn't think today's negative numbers necessarily strengthen Icahn's hand.
Raymond points to other negative news about the company since it put itself up for sale, like a delay in federal approval for the use of its drug Tysabri to treat Crohn's disease, news that failed to hurt Biogen's stock price.
Biotech firms are hot, no question about it.
"We saw a very similar situation fold out with MedImmune," Raymond points out, "and I think the logic that's prevailing on the Street now is if it could happen with MedImmune, it could certainly happen with this company."
AstraZeneca paid an unexpectedly rich $15.6 billion for MedImmune earlier this year. That's equal to 11-times annual sales.