Best stock to buy: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ALNY) is a biopharmaceutical company developing, discovering and and commercializing therapeutics based on ribonucleic acid interface (RNAi). The company’s stock was recently upgraded by Zacks to a “Buy” rating, which means it is one of the best stocks to buy at this moment. On the basis of the rating action of Zacks, will analyze the stock as follows:
Financials:
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals issued its fiscal 2012 second quarter results on Monday. For the second quarter, the company posted a net loss of $13.0 million, or $0.25 per share (including $3.1 million, or $0.06 per share of non-cash stock-based compensation expense), versus a net loss of $13.8 million, or $0.33 per share for last year’s same period. Analysts had averagely estimated a net loss of $0.19 per share. The company recognized revenue of $20.9 million for this quarter, slightly higher than $20.6 million a year ago.
Analysts are averagely estimating the company would post a net loss of $19 per share for the third quarter and a net loss of $1.26 per share or the full fiscal 2012 year.
Business:
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals received a milestone payment of $3.2 million from UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline as the progress on the utilization of the company’s RNA interference (RNAi) technology to produce influenza vaccines. The collaboration was initiated in the fourth quarter of last year, pursuant to which, GlaxoSmithKline pays R&D funding, milestone payments and royalties from any commercialized vaccine to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.
The company plans to have its ambitious core product program Alnylam 5×15, realized by 2015; this program was launched in January 2011, and is expected to develop RNAi therapeutic products for the treatment of five diseases with a high unmet need.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals recently announced its candidate ALN-TTR02 has fared well in a phase I study, which is aimed to treat transthyretin; as well as promising pre-clinical results for its hemophilia treatment. These progresses boosted a huge increase of more than 150% in ALNY stock price.
“We are impressed by Alnylam’s strategy of entering into collaborations with big players in the market. We believe that investor focus will remain on the company’s pipeline going forward. We are also impressed by the company’s 5X15 initiative” said by Zacks.
Stock performance:
According to the data provided by FactSet Research, 10 analysts rated ALNY stock; among them, six gave a “Buy” rating on this stock; one rated the stock as “Overweight”; three gave a “Hold” rating on the shares.
Analysts averagely set a stock price target of $19.67 per share on ALNY stock, representing a 12.02% upside potential over the latest closing price of $18.44 on August 6, 2012. The latest stock price is much higher than its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which are settling at $13.84 and $10.88, respectively. Alnylam Pharma (ALNY) has a one year low of $5.88 and a one year high of $20.63. ALNY stock has accumulatively rose 126.26% since the beginning of this year. On the basis of the latest closing price, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has a market cap of 957.96 million.
The related article: Best stocks to buy: Zacks #1 Rank Additions for Monday.