UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrades ISIS Pharmaceuticals Following Mixed 1Q Results

In a report published Wednesday, Piper Jaffray analyst Joshua E. Schimmer upgraded the rating on

from Neutral to Overweight, but lowered the price target from $61.00 to $42.00. In the report, Piper Jaffray noted, “ISIS reported 1Q results this morning, and with today's weakness, shares are now down >60% since their highs earlier this year. We believe the current valuation now reflects the opportunity for ISIS-APO-CIII, our favorite wholly owned program entering P3. With this perspective, we can consider the rest of the pipeline including ISIS-SMNrx for SMA, ISIS-TTRrx for TTR amyloidosis and a myriad of partnered and wholly owned P2 and earlier stage pipeline as not being adequately reflected in shares. Our new PT is actually lower than before ($42 vs $61) as we adjust assumptions described in this note, but given recent share weakness this still leaves nearly 65% potential upside.” ISIS Pharmaceuticals closed on Tuesday at $24.66.