Health and Healthcare

Incyte Underwhelms With Earnings

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Incyte Corp. (NASDAQ: INCY) reported its fourth-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Wednesday. The company had $0.29 in earnings per share (EPS) on $243.88 million in revenue, which compares to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $0.09 in EPS on $225.92 million in revenue. The same period from the previous year had a net loss of $0.22in EPS on $1.23.97 million in revenue.

In this quarter, baricitinib was licensed to Eli Lilly by Incyte, and it met the primary endpoint in all four of its global Phase 3 studies. If approved, Eli Lilly expects to launch baricitinib in early 2017. In addition, epacadostat, Incyte’s first-in-class IDO1 inhibitor, is expected to enter Phase 3 during the first half of 2016 in first-line advanced or metastatic melanoma in combination with Merck’s pembrolizumab. Multiple Phase 2, tumor-specific, expansion cohorts of epacadostat in combination with anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 checkpoint modulators are also underway.

As for guidance, Incyte expects to have revenues in the range of $800 million to $815 million for the 2016 full year. The consensus estimates call for $0.58 in EPS on $735.53 in revenue.

On the books, cash, equivalents and marketable securities totaled $707.79 million, compared to $600.26 million in the same period from last year.

Hervé Hoppenot, president and CEO of Incyte, commented on earnings:

The momentum of Jakafi, now into its fifth year of commercialization, continues to be strong, and, pending regulatory approval, we look forward to a second important source of revenue from baricitinib. Despite the outcome of the JANUS program, our development portfolio remains robust, comprised of 13 candidates against 10 molecular targets, demonstrating Incyte’s commitment to innovation and the productivity of our drug discovery and development engine.

Shares of Incyte closed Wednesday at $72.31, with a consensus analyst price target of $113.69 and a 52-week trading range of $64.51 to $133.62. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was down nearly 16% at $60.87 in early trading indications Thursday.

 

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