Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (SRPT) are soaring in pre-market trade on Friday, gaining as much as 11%. The surge follows the company’s recent announcement regarding the publication of results from two studies that demonstrated no clinical or toxicologic safety concerns with its drug candidates for the treatment of Ebola and Marburg virus, respectively. Sarepta said that the results from two single ascending-dose studies are to be published in the November issue of the American Society for Microbiology’s journal.
In a statement, Michael Wong, senior medical director at Sarepta said the company “believe[s] these promising early clinical safety results, coupled with the strong safety and efficacy data generated from animal studies for all four PMO compounds, reinforce the use of our PMOplus ® chemistry platform to pursue potential treatments for deadly infectious diseases such as Ebola and Marburg.”
SRPT is one of several stocks that has benefited from the Ebola outbreak. This biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the development of RNA-based therapeutics for the treatment of infectious diseases has seen its shares gain roughly 10% year-to-date. Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics have a median and high consensus analyst price target of $36.50 and $63.00, respectively. Ticker has currently 8 analysts that rate it a ‘Buy’, while 6 rate it a ‘Hold’. 1 analysts rates it a ‘Sell’.
In the past 52 weeks, shares of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm have traded between a low of $12.12 and a high of $46.27 and are now at $24.79.
Repros Therapeutics Inc. (RPRX) is one of Friday’s notable stocks in decline, down nearly 42% to $6.15. The nosedive came after the company announced its upcoming FDA meeting will be Type C meeting instead of Type B Pre-NDA meeting.
Repros said that it has received a communication from the FDA indicating that based on its preliminary review of the company’s briefing document, there was not sufficient clinical information provided for the meeting to be a Type B Pre-NDA meeting.
On valuation measures, Repros Therapeutics, which currently has a market cap of $242.88M, has a high and median Wall Street price target of $28.50 and $41, respectively. The name has a PEG and EPS of 0.28 and ($1.32), respectively.
RPRX is down 58.43% year-over-year and 42.57% year-to-date. Ticker trades within a 52-week trading range of $8.46 to $26.14.
In Friday’s premarket trading, CytRx Corporation (CYTR) has been a solid winner, up more than 12% to $2.95 from the prior days close of $2.49. The biopharmaceutical company today announced that data regarding its Phase 2b global clinical trial of aldoxorubicin for the treatment of first-line soft tissue sarcoma (STS) will be presented in a moderated paper presentation at the 2014 Connective Tissue Oncology Society [CTOS] Annual Meeting which is being held October 15-18, 2014, in Berlin, Germany. The company said however, that due to the longer than expected survival of patients in the clinical trial, there have not been a sufficient number of survival events to enable it to report data on overall survival, a secondary endpoint of the study.
“Although it is too early to make any definitive assessment of the Phase 2b survival data, our early assessment is encouraging,” Sant P. Chawla, principal investigator of the trial said in a statement.”As previously reported, aldoxorubicin has already demonstrated statistically significant improvements in progression-free survival, as well as promising improvements in tumor shrinkage and overall response rates.”
CytRx Corp has seen its stock gain nearly 12% year-over-year, while losing 58.05% year-to-date. Shares of Los Angeles, California-based biopharmaceutical firm have a median consensus analyst price target of $11.00 and a 52-week trading range of $2.00 to $8.35.
Investment analysts at MLV & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Tesla Motors (TSLA) in a note issued to investors on Friday. The firm set a ‘Buy’ rating and a $300.00 price target on the stock saying that while the stock is not cheap they believe it deserves to trade inline with other disruptive technology companies. MLV sees ticker as undervalued.
In other Tesla news; the company said in a blog post regarding the bill passed in Michigan, “We are calling on concerned consumers to contact the Governor and urge him to veto this legislation and return the issue to the legislature for a full and open debate in 2015.” Tesla explained, “On October 1, the Michigan Automobile Dealers Association succeeded in passing a bill that is harmful to consumers. The bill, HB5606, was originally a single amendment to existing law designed to ensure that the car dealers can tack additional fees on to the purchase price for all vehicles (from any manufacturer) sold in Michigan. Such fees have a controversial history, are generally regarded with skepticism and have been the subject of consumer concern in other states.”
TSLA recently traded at $232.44, up 3 percent.
Google (GOOGL) — The search giant slid in early trading on Friday after posting Q3 revenue that missed expectations, due in large part to slowing paid click growth.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Google reported EPS of $6.35 on $13.17B in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $6.53 a share on $13.19B in revs.
Shares of Google fell $4.37, or 0.81%, in recent trading.
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