There were some key research calls in biotech and biohealth shares this week. Over in our “top five analyst calls of the week” at 24/7 Wall Street we noted how one firm came out in defense of MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ: MNKD) on its implosion this week and another call was highlighting the potential upside value that remains in PDL BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: PDLI) despite its patent fight concerns. There were many other standout calls though in analyst coverage this last week in biohealth:
Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) has remained impressive after having been one of our “Best of Big BioHealth in 2010″ and was also at the start of the year listed as “an overvalued biohealth names with peers.” This week brought an analyst duel. Citigroup raised its rating to BUY from Hold and the new price target is $85.00 per share. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $66.87 and the Citi target appears to be the street-high price target. Elsewhere, RBC Capital Markets lowered the rating to Sector Perform from Outperform due to valuation. Illumina’s 52-week range is $34.25 to $71.07, and at $68.75 it has a market cap now of $8.6 billion.
Clinical Data Inc. (NASDAQ: CLDA) will be one to watch this coming week after the FDA approved its antidepressant drug to be sold under the brand name Viibyrd. Shares closed at $15.03 on Friday but were much higher after the news and the 52-week trading range is $10.87 to $22.39. What is interesting is that analysts already see peak sales above $2 billion as this antidepressant is believed to not interfere with sexual desire as much as in some rival drugs. The consensus price target is already $29.67 per Thomson Reuters data.
This week came a standout call in Big Pharma from Wells Fargo as the firm raised the sector to “Overweight.” Wells Fargo raised Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) to Outperform ratings and also noted Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) in the call.
Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) closed the week out at $84.43 and has a 52-week range of $44.86 to $87.14. There was an analyst duel this week. Gleacher & Co. raised its rating to Buy while UBS cut its rating to Hold.
Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT) hit new 52-week lows this last week and closed at $10.20 versus a 52-week range of $10.16 to $23.46. Its shares were downgraded to “Underperform” over at Bank of America Merrill Lynch after previous news in its business update of reports of batch failures with its new gout medication called Krystexxa.
Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) is set to report earnings on Monday and Thomson Reuters has estimates of $1.10 EPS and $3.8 billion in revenues; for the next quarter estimates are $1.31 EPS and $3.67 billion in revenues. At $56.97 shares are actually down slightly from 90-days ago and the 52-week range is $50.26 to $61.26. This stock is getting toward its higher end of a 3 year trading band, so we expect that analyst will have to make some adjustments after earnings. Thomson Reuters has an average price target above $65.00 currently.
At the end of December, we gave a list of Big Biotechs With teh Most Upside in 2011.
Those are definitely not all of the research calls of the week in biotech and biohealth names, but this was a fairly busy week.
Stay Tuned!
JON C. OGG
