ICOS
Up As 1Q Beats Street on Cialis
May 05, 2006
ICOS Rosy Impotence Drug
Forecast Excites Investors, Elicits Yawns From
Wall Street
Shares of ICOS Corp. surged
Friday despite a lack of analyst fanfare as
the biotech drug maker forecast a slightly improved
outlook for the year after its first-quarter
results beat Wall Street estimates.
ICOS shares rose $1.77, or 8.4 percent, to
$22.82 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq at
nearly double their average volume. Shares have
traded between $20.02 and $30.66 over the past
52 weeks.
Late Thursday, ICOS reported a loss of 653,000,
or 1 cent per share, versus a prior-year deficit
of $46.3 million, or 73 cents per share. Excluding
stock option expenses, the company reported
earnings per share of 11 cents.
Wall Street had been expecting
a wider loss of 17 cents, including stock options
costs. Quarterly revenue rose to $18.7 million
from $13.8 million a year ago.
ICOS anticipates that sales of the impotence
treatment Cialis,
marketed through a joint venture with drug maker
Eli Lilly & Co., will be near the upper
limit of a $860 million to $900 million forecast.
ICOS also expects its loss for the year to be
closer to 8 cents per share than 39 cents per
share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial
estimate a loss of 9 cents per share.
However, analysts greeted the results and outlook
with a yawn.
Baird analyst Christopher J. Raymond reiterated
his "Neutral" rating and lowered his
price target to $24 from $27. Raymond said despite
the upbeat guidance, flat growth in the erectile
dysfunction market and unusually high stock
option expenses cooled him on the stock.
Merrill Lynch and SG Cowen also held onto their
"Neutral" ratings citing the slow
erectile dysfunction market.
Morgan Stanley analyst Steven Harr reiterated
his "Underperform" rating believing
that the Street overestimates long-term growth
in the erectile
dysfunction market. Harr said in a note
that Cialis will have to get approvals to treat
high blood pressure and enlarged prostate to
achieve long term growth.
Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060505/icos_mover.html?.v=1 |
