Top 5 Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2018


Although 2016 wasn’t exactly the greatest year for healthcare stocks in general, there really aren’t very many true bargains to be found in the industry. However, three healthcare stocks do appear to be priced well below what they’re worth. Here’s why Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD), Lantheus Holdings (NASDAQ:LNTH), and Mallinckrodt (NYSE:MNK) look to be ridiculously cheap right now.

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Gilead Sciences: Cash flow king

Shares of Gilead Sciences are trading below 7 times trailing 12-month earnings and forward earnings. Those are the lowest multiples for the biotech in more than a decade. Gilead’s stock has dropped like a brick over the past 18 months because of slumping sales for its hepatitis C virus (HCV) franchise.

Lower revenue doesn’t mean Gilead is strapping for cash, though. In fact, the big biotech remains a cash flow king. In the first nine months of 2016, Gilead generated operating cash flow of nearly $13.2 billion. That kind of performance allowed the company to build up a sizable nest egg of $31.6 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities as of the end of the third quarter in 2016. Gilead’s cash position is undoubtedly larger by now.

Top 5 Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2018: ARIAD Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ARIA)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Healthcare shares gained around 0.73 percent in trading on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARIA), and VCA Inc (NASDAQ: WOOF).

Top 5 Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2018: Medivation Inc.(MDVN)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    RBC’s Simos Simeonidis and Matthew Eckler try to find the right comparison for Pfizer’s (PFE) purchase of Medivation (MDVN):


    Scott Eisen/Bloomberg News

    We were obviously wrong with our Sector Perform rating: while we knew an M&A transaction was definitely a good possibility, we just could not get to this level of valuation using a realistic Xtandi model and thus could not recommend the stock. The only way for us to get to $81.50 (or even to $60-$70/share) would have been to assign very significant value to talazoparib. And we could not do that given the amount of available clinical evidence.Medivation shareholders who held on to their shares past the $50′s, did just that, were proven right and are now rewarded for it, since they believed that someone would be willing to pay for this asset just months ahead of Phase III data. The key question is why would a company be willing to part with what they claim/think may be a multibillion dollar drug that works in multiple cancers. We believe the obvious answer is because they’re smart and understand drug development risk better than most. We’ll know in a matter of months whether Pfizer/Medivation is like Amgen (AMGN)-Onyx (carfilzomib) or not.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Last night, Bloomberg reported that Sanofi (SNY) had made a bid for Medivation (MDVN) but had been rebuffed, while noting that other companies–perhaps Gilead Sciences (GILD), Amgen (AMGN) or AstraZeneca (AZN)?–were also on the prowl. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey’s Peter Lawson explains why Medivation might be biotech’s most wanted:

  • [By Monica Gerson]

    Medivation Inc (NASDAQ: MDVN) is said to have spurned recent takeover approach from France’s Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE: SNY), according to sources as reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday. Sanofi wants Medivation’s treatments for hard-to-cure cancers, the sources said. Medivation shares surged 8.46 percent to $49.60 in the after-hours trading session, while Sanofi shares fell 0.59 percent to $42.02 in after-hours trading.

Top 5 Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2018: Biogen Idec Inc(BIIB)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]

    Breakups have the potential to create a lot of value. Just look at what Biogen (BIIB) did with its hemophilia franchise. Spun out as Bioverativ (BIVV) , shares started trading earlier this year. The stock has climbed some 23% on seemingly no news, Cramer noted.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Biogen (BIIB) tumbled to the bottom of the S&P 500 today after getting cut by two analysts.

    Agence France-Presse/Getty Images


    Biogen dropped 4.7% to $278.96 at 4:19 p.m. today, while the S&P 500 declined 0.2% to 2,381.38.

    Leerinks Geoffrey Porges cited the “slower than expected ramp for Spinraza” in cutting Biogen to Market Perform from Outperform, while Morgan Stanly’s Matthew Harrison wrote that his decision to cut Biogen to Market Weight from Overweight was “not a downside call, but a timing call.”

    Biogen’s market capitalization fell to $60.2 billion today from $63.2 billion yesterday. It reported net income of $3.7 billion on sales of $10.2 billion in 2016.


    Barron’s Teresa Rivas recommended buying Biogen in December after the company released positive trial data on its Alzheimer’s drug.

  • [By WWW.MONEYSHOW.COM]

    Biogen (BIIB)

    Biogen discovers, develops and delivers innovative therapies for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and autoimmune disorders.

  • [By Brian Orelli]

    While that’s fine for clinical trials, it may make it difficult for Ionis’ drugs to compete with drugs that work as well but don’t have side effects that need to be monitored. Of course, for Spinraza, which Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) and Ionis recently got approved for spinal muscular atrophy, side effects aren’t an issue because there aren’t any other treatment options at the moment.

  • [By Todd Campbell]

    A new and highly anticipated study byCelgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG) shows that its promising multiple sclerosis drug could soon reshape the $19 billion multiple sclerosis market. On Friday, management reported that ozanimod met its primary endpoint for reducing MS relapses better than Biogen Inc.’s (NASDAQ:BIIB) Avonex, and importantly, it did so without any new safety risks.

  • [By George Budwell]

    Shares of theDanish drugmaker Forward Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:FWP) gained 48.2% yesterday as the result of a settlement and licensing deal with Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB)involving an ongoing patent dispute over the multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera. Per the terms of the deal, Biogen will fork overa non-refundable$1.25 billion licensing fee, and possibly pay 10% to 20% royalties on Tecfidera’snet sales to Forward starting in 2021.

Top 5 Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2018: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ALNY)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Brian Orelli]

    Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) jumped as much as 14.5% today after announcing earnings after the bell yesterday. As a development-stage biotech, it wasn’t the revenue or the earnings that caused the spike, but the progression of Allnylam’s pipeline.

  • [By Chris Dier-Scalise]

    On Thursday, the Vetr crowd downgraded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY) from 4.5 stars (Strong Buy), which was issued two days ago, to 3.5 stars (Hold). Crowd sentiment for Alnylam at the time of the downgrade was edging positive, with 66 percent of Vetr user rating bullish.

  • [By Cory Renauer]

    Treating diseases that have a genetic component by altering the expression of the responsible genes is a promising new field of medicine, but it has been much less straightforward than biopharmaceutical companies had expected. Two contenders in this area, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) and Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS), saw a mix of setbacks and success in 2016.

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY) shares shot up 53 percent to $114.87 after the company impressed investors with encouraging data from a phase 3 clinical trial. Alnylam, a company dedicated towards treating a wide range of debilitating diseases through ribonucleic acid (RNA) interference (RNAi) therapeutics, said after Tuesday's market close that a phase 3 study called APOLLO met its primary efficacy endpoint and all secondary endpoints.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Yesterday, after markets closed, it was announced that US Federal District Court Judge Sue Robinson ruled to issue a permanent injunction against Praluent, the PCSK9 mAb for hypercholesterolemia from partners Regeneron and Sanofi, due to infringement of patents from Amgen. The court has imposed a 30-day suspension (stay) on the injunction to allow for settlement or appeal of the District Court decision. Sanofi and Regeneron have announced their intent to appeal the ruling to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). The injunction decision is consistent with our counter-consensus published views communicated on 25 January 2016 (“Downgrade to Sell on evidence of likely infringement of Amgen’s PCSK9 patents”) and subsequently. Based on consultation with expert legal counsel, we now put >75% probability Amgen will prevail on appeal and/or Praluent is ultimately removed from the US market, and/or Amgen achieves a settlement substantially in its favor. We currently model $3.3 bn in non-risk-adjusted 2022E US revenues for Praluent, while consensus models $1.2 bn in 2022E US revenues. We reiterate our view from 25 January 2016 to preferentially own Amgen, The Medicines Company (MDCO) (Buy), and Alnylam (ALNY) (Buy) over Regeneron for exposure to PCSK9 inhibitor market dynamics as outcomes trials approach.

Top 5 Biotech Stocks To Buy For 2018: Amgen Inc.(AMGN)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]

    Finally on Friday, Tiffany (TIF) reports, and Cramer is betting on positive news now that the company has an activist involved. He was also bullish on Amgen’s (AMGN) analyst meeting, saying investors should use any market weakness earlier in the week to buy.

  • [By Chris Lange]

    Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) saw its short interest increase to 7.78 million shares from the previous level of 7.38 million. Shares closed most recently at $145.34, in a 52-week trading range of $133.64 to $176.85.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Biotech stocks have been particularly unloved during the past year, with the iShares Nasdaq Biotech Index ETF (IBB) gaining just 7% to the S&P 500′s 20% rise. Today, however, Amgen (AMGN) is getting a lot of love from the market after releasing Street beating earnings and reporting that its anti-cholesterol drug reduced heart attacks.

  • [By Keith Speights]

    Investors have turned to the pharmaceutical industry for solid dividend stocks for a long time. However, biotechs typically weren’t high on the list when it came to dividends. Over the past few years, though, Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) have risen in prominence as attractive alternatives for dividend-seeking investors.

  • [By Jon C. Ogg]

    In September of 2016, Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) announced that the FDA had approved its Amjevita as a biosimilar to Humira for multiple inflammatory diseases that included RA and several other related inflammatory diseases.

  • [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]

    That’s why Cramer said he’ll be listening for news coming from Celgene (CEL) , Amgen (AMGN) , Allergan (AGN) , an Action Alerts PLUS holding, and Regenron (REGN) , all of which are set to present. Of the four, Cramer said he’s sticking with Allergan and Amgen.

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