2023-03-24 08:44:10 ET
Regeneron ( NASDAQ: REGN ) continued to earn bullish views on Wall Street after the company, and its partner Sanofi ( SNY ) announced that asthma therapy Dupixent succeeded in a Phase 3 trial for adult smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
After Raymond James upgraded the biotech on Thursday following the readout, Jefferies followed up with another rating change, raising its recommendation to Buy from Hold and lifting its price target to $925 from $675 per share.
"Despite the macro environment, REGN's hit two home runs within a short period of time," Jefferies analyst Akash Tewari wrote, arguing that Dupixent in COPD exceeded Buyside expectations and referring to the positive data the company disclosed in 2022 for its high-dose Eylea formulation.
Tewari notes that Dupixent's COPD opportunity could be ~$4B and estimates ~$19.2B as the treatment's peak global sales potential.
Citing an effect on non-smokers, the analyst also raises the peak sales estimate for itepekimab, an anti-interleukin-33 (IL-33) monoclonal antibody Regeneron ( REGN ) co-develops with Sanofi ( OTCPK:SNYNF )
Tewari also positively views REGN's LAG-3 inhibitor fianlimab and PSMA x CD28 costimulatory bispecific antibody REGN5678, modeling $1.1B and $379M of risk-adjusted peak sales for the candidates, respectively.
Meanwhile, Barclays, reiterating the Overweight rating on Regeneron ( REGN ), increased its price target to $915 from $815 per share. The analyst Carter Gould projects 2030 sales for Dupixent in COPD to reach over $4B and takes his global 2030 sales estimate for the treatment to $25B across indications.
However, Bank of America kept its Underperform rating and $605 per share target on REGN unchanged. "In all, we think while the BOREAS study is positive, it only moderately moves the needle in Dupixent consensus forecasts," the analyst Geoff Meacham wrote, referring to Thursday data readout.
Read: Seeking Alpha contributors Derek Pitman & Betsy Yang issued a Hold rating on the stock in February, citing valuation concerns. "….it needs to retrace some of the recent froth to be considered "good value" again," the authors wrote.
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Regeneron draws more bullish views from analysts after Dupixent COPD data