UPDATE: Aegis Capital Upgrades Sinovac Biotech Following 2Q 2013 Financials Report

In a report published Thursday, Aegis Capital analyst Raghuram Selvaraju upgraded Sinovac Biotech SVA from Hold to Buy, and named a $7.00 price target.

In the report, Aegis Capital noted, “Yesterday, Sinovac reported 2Q 2013 financial results. Total revenue was reported at $17.5mm, beating our projection of $11.6mm. Diluted earnings were $0.02 per share, higher than our original estimate of a loss of $0.06 per share. This is mainly due to higher sales of the company's hepatitis vaccines. Management also indicated that the NDA review of the EV71 vaccine targeting hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is moving into the technological review process stage at the Center for Drug Evaluation of the SFDA, which is the Chinese equivalent of the U.S. FDA. We have adjusted our projections accordingly and our current estimated revenue numbers for 2013 and 2014 are $62.3mm and $80.5mm respectively, with the diluted loss per share being $0.08 and $0.14 per share. We are upgrading the stock from a Hold to a Buy rating and institute a 12-month price target of $7.00 per share.”

Sinovac Biotech closed on Wednesday at $4.57.