Health and Healthcare

Mylan Woes Pushing Stock Back Toward 52-Week Low

Jon C. Ogg

Published: September 29, 2016 11:45 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 2:59 am

Mylan N.V. (NASDAQ: MYL) just has been unable to recover from its EpiPen pricing hike issue. Shares were down over 4% on Thursday morning, and now the stock is dangerously close to a 52-week low. It is at the lowest stock price since the middle of May.

Thursday’s additional weakness was tied to a late Wednesday report from U.S. federal health regulators expressly advising Mylan that the company had improperly classified its EpiPen treatment in a manner that allowed Mylan to pay out lower rebates to multiple state health programs.

What is unfortunate for Mylan here is that the EpiPen damage seems to keep spreading. The company’s own price change after they were marred by politicians and consumer watch groups has failed to alleviate pressure on the company’s shares. Even its own generic launch has not helped.

Wednesday also brought news that several senators are now asking the U.S. Department of Justice to consider investigating Mylan over the EpiPen. Those Senators have reportedly asked for the U.S. Attorney General to respond to them by October 12.

Wells Fargo issued a report on Thursday noting that this classification error could become material. Minnesota was shown to be a cost of roughly $4.3 million, but Wells Fargo points out that Minnesota represents just 2% of the U.S. population.

Wells Fargo has a $43 to $45 valuation range on top of its Market Perform rating. The report shows a concern that overhangs include the integration of the Meda transaction, two large non-strategic shareholders, and lack of meaningful earnings upside on the core base business. The report addressed the next steps:

We expect the next steps will be Mylan’s submission of data and information to the panel’s request (this week), and potentially other hearings in the months to come. We will keep the October 12th date circled as we expect the Senators will hear from the U.S. Attorney by then.

The firm’s David Maris said of Mylan:

We continue to believe the EpiPen situation is far from over with Mylan and represents a risk to the shares. Our current valuation range is slightly higher than the current share price, so we are not changing our rating.

Mylan shares are now approaching a 30% drop so far in 2016. Amazingly, coming into Thursday the shares were still up 1% over a year ago. Mylan shares were last seen down 4.8% at $38.26, and its 52-week trading range is $37.59 to $55.51.