Recently analysts have released their new ratings on health care stocks.
The first health care stock on this list is Dynavax (DVAX, Financial), a Berkeley, California-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is developing a pipeline of various candidates to prevent infectious diseases, to treat inflammatory and autoimmune disease and as a treatment for cancer.
RBC Capital Markets has confirmed its Outperform rating on Dynavax and set its new target price at $28 per share. This represents a 33% upside from the current share price of $21.05.
Dynavax has a current market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a price-book (P/B) ratio of 8.09, a price-sales (P/S) ratio of 104.25 and a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of -8.69. The forward P/E ratio is negative and set at -13.67.
For full fiscal year 2017 and 2018, analysts forecast a loss of $1.6 per share and a loss of $1.54 per share.
GuruFocus gives Dynavax a financial strength rating of 9 out of 10. Concerning its profitability and growth prospects, GuruFocus assigns this health care stock a rating of 2 out of 10.
The second health care stock is ChromaDex (CDXC, Financial). Ladenburg Thalmann started to cover shares of ChromaDex and recommended buying this health care stock.
For ChromaDex, Ladenburg Thalmann has set a target price of $7 per share, which represents a hefty 62% upside from the current market valuation of $4.32 per share.
As reported by the StreetInsider.com, Jeffrey Cohen, analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann, sees potential in the company’s NexGen B3 Form (NR) as a product that will help people live healthier.
NR or nicotinamide riboside is sold under the company’s brand name NIAGEN. It belongs to the vitamin B3 complex that is involved in the process of converting the nutrients that we get from our daily diet into the energy we need.
The company closed the last four fiscal years with a loss. For this fiscal, analysts forecast the company will report another loss of 14 cents, which is a worsening from the previous full fiscal year’s loss of 3 cents. For the period from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2019, analysts foresee a 235.70% growth in ChromaDex’s earnings that will lead to an EPS of 19 cents.
ChromaDex is trading at $4.31 with a market capitalization of $207.14 million, a P/B ratio of 7.20, a P/S ratio of 7.64 and with a P/E ratio of -21.23. The forward P/E ratio is 25.00.
GuruFocus assigns ChromaDex a profitability and growth rating of 5 out of a total of 10 and a financial strength rating of 8 out of 10.
The third health care stock on this list is Synergy Pharmaceuticals (SGYP, Financial), a U.S. biopharmaceutical company that is engaged in the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of diseases and disorders that affect the gastrointestinal tract. H.C. Wainwright kept its buy rating on shares of Synergy Pharmaceuticals, but the firm decreased its target price by 46.7% from $15 per share to $8 per share.
As one of the reasons for having lowered the target price on Synergy Pharmaceuticals, StreetInsider.com reports “a slowdown on the Trulance ramp.” Trulance is a drug used for the chronic idiopathic constipation treatment in adults who are suffering from this metabolic disease.
The new target price set by H.C. Wainwright represents a 206.5% increase from the current share price of $2.61. Synergy Pharmaceuticals has a market capitalization of $587.13 million, a P/B ratio of 13.27, a P/S ratio of 256.06 and a P/E ratio of -2.22. For full fiscal 2017, analysts forecast that the company will close the reporting period with a loss of $1.14 per share while for the following fiscal year they estimate a loss of 66 cents.
GuruFocus gives Synergy Pharmaceuticals a profitability and growth rating of 4 out of 10 and a financial strength rating of 4 out of 10.
H.C. Wainwright has also provided the market with an update of its rating and target price on shares of Cellect Biotechnology (APOP, Financial). In “anticipating favorable proof-of-concept final clinical data for ApoGraft in graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) prophylaxis in the coming months,” reports StreetInsider.com, Raghuram Selvaraju – analyst at H.C. Wainwright – has increased its target price by 16.7% from $12 per share to $14 per share while confirming a buy rating on Cellect Biotechnology.
Cellect Biotechnology is an Israeli biotechnology company that is engaged in regenerative medicine. The company is committed to the development of technologies for stem cells’ functional selection and for stem cell therapies.
ApoGraft’s stem cell technology is designed for transplant-associated disease prevention.
The new target price of $14 per share – as set by analysts at H.C. Wainwright – represents a nearly 67.5% increase from the current share price of $8.36. Cellect Biotechnology has a market capitalization of $51.84 million, a P/B ratio of 12.52 and a P/E ratio of -6.33.
GuruFocus gives Cellect Biotechnology a financial strength rating of 6 out of 10 and a profitability and growth rating of 3 out of 10.
STAAR Surgical Co. (STAA) – the fifth health care stock of this list – was upgraded, reports StreetInsider, to Buy by Canaccord Genuity from a previous rating of Hold.
STAAR Surgical is a U.S. eye implantable lenses designer, developer, manufacturer and seller. The company also delivers systems to implant lenses into the patient’s eye.
For the treatment of visual disorders such as myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and presbyopia, the company also provides eye patients with Visian implantable collamer lenses (ICLs).
For 2018 and ahead, Jason Mills – analyst at Canaccord Genuity – sees a brighter outlook for STAAR Surgical made of “growth and margin acceleration” in the company’s business, reports Street Insider.com. The analyst has set a new target price per share for STAAR Surgical of $15, which is a 36.4% increase from the previous price target of $11 per share and a 26% upside from the current share price of $11.9 for a market capitalization of $488.19 million. The company has a P/B ratio of 12.85, a P/S ratio of 5.77 and a P/E ratio of -94.44.
GuruFocus assigns STAAR Surgical a financial strength rating of 7 out of 10 and a profitability and growth rating of 5 out of 10.
The sixth health care stock on this list is AbbVie (ABBV, Financial). The U.S. global health care company that was originated in 2013 as a spinoff of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) was downgraded to Neutral by UBS from a previous rating of Buy.
UBS increased by 16.5% its target price on AbbVie from $79 per share to $92 per share. This target price per share represents a 6.3% upside from the current share price of $86.57, which, considering a total volume of 1.59 billion shares outstanding, leads to a market capitalization of $138 billion.
The target price of $92 per share, as set by UBS, will move the average target higher; it is currently at $81.71 per share as a mean of 17 estimates of analysts who were surveyed on the Humira producer and seller.
AbbVie has a P/B ratio of 22.93, a P/E ratio of 21.27, a P/S of 5.24 and an EV-EBITDA ratio of 15.30.
For AbbVie, the forward P/E ratio is currently 13.19 that multiplied by an EPS of $5.52 – as forecasted by analysts for full-fiscal 2017 – yields a value of $72.80. The EPS for full-fiscal 2018 is forecasted at $6.49.
The health care company distributes an annual dividend of $2.56 – through quarterly payments of 64 cents – to its shareholders for a dividend yield of 2.96%, which is higher than the current Standard & Poor's 500 dividend yield of 1.89%.
GuruFocus gives AbbVie a financial strength rating of 5 out of a total of 10 and a profitability and growth rating of 7 out of 10.
The last stock on this list is Quest Diagnostics (DGX, Financial).The U.S. global diagnostic testing information and services provider was downgraded to Market Perform by Raymond James from a previous rating of Outperform.
Quest Diagnostics is trading at $94.57 per share with a market capitalization of $12.9 billion, a P/B ratio of 2.74, a P/E ratio of 19.07, a P/S ratio of 1.75 and an EV-EBITDA ratio of 10.78.
The forward P/E ratio is 17.04 while the estimates on the company’s earnings for full fiscal 2017 and 2018 target $5.69 per share and $5.96 per share.
Quest Diagnostics currently distributes an annual dividend of $1.80 – through quarterly payments of 45 cents – to its shareholders for a dividend yield of 1.77%. This latter is lower than the current S&P 500 dividend yield.
The average target price is $112.36 per share, and the recommendation rating is 2.7 out of 5.
GuruFocus gives Quest Diagnostics a financial strength rating of 5 out of a total of 10 and a profitability and growth rating of 8 out of 10.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stock mentioned in this article.
