Halozyme gains as Piper Sandler upgrades despite Q1 miss
May 10, 2023 9:19 AM ETHalozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (HALO)JNJBy: Dulan Lokuwithana, SA News Editor1 Comment
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- Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HALO) moved ~6% higher in the pre-market Wednesday even after recording lower-than-expected financials for Q1 2023 as Piper Sandler upgraded the biotech citing its near-term outlook.
- Raising his recommendation on HALO to Overweight from Neutral, the analyst Joseph Catanzaro argues that despite the revenue miss, the topline reflects seasonality, and the company is on track to achieve its guidance.
- With significant catalysts to partner’s pipeline, Halozyme’s royalty business “is still well positioned in the near-term to continue its meaningful growth trajectory” despite some uncertainty in the long-term, the analyst added with a $46 per share target on the stock.
- Piper notes that the stock has witnessed “a meaningful pullback” this year due to reasons including recent drug pricing reforms in the U.S. and a setback to Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) European patent linked to cancer therapy Darzalex which uses HALO’s enzyme technology.