Wall Street's Best Think Gilead Will Continue To Outperform The Market

Shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. GILD are down about 1.8 percent on Monday trading, ahead of the announcement of the company’s second quarter financial results, scheduled for after the market closes on Tuesday.

According to Estimize, experts are projecting earnings of $2.64 per share (up about 11 percent year-over-year) on revenue of $7.36 billion. Let’s take a look at what five major Wall Street research firms are saying before the earnings call.

Maxim Group

Maxim analyst Jason Kolbert models earnings of $2.78 per share on sales of $7.674 billion. The firm maintains a Buy rating and $127.00 price target on the stock, highlighting that “Gilead continues to be a cash-flow generating machine, driven by Harvoni and Sovaldi as a best-in-class regimen.” They recommend taking advantage of any weakness in the stock to build a position.

In a recent report, the firm said it is excited to see the launch dynamic of Harvoni in Japan. The drug was recently approved in the country, where the majority of the population is genotype, a group in which the drug showed 100 percent efficacy.

William Blair

Analysts at William Blair rate Gilead an Outperform, and remain confident that the company’s HCV franchise will “benefit from a long-tail launch trajectory for the next decade.” Moreover, they point out that all programs in the development pipeline are seeing considerable progress, and that the company remains financially robust and stable.

The firm is anticipating earnings of $2.38 per share on sales of $7.214 billion for the second quarter, mainly driven by Harvoni sales (estimated at $3.611 billion).

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank experts Robyn Karnauskas, Mohit Bansal and Evan Seigerman seem particularly bullish on Gilead, as they maintain a Buy rating and $125.00 price target, and model earnings of $2.89 per share for the second quarter of 2015.

The analysts will pay particular attention to HCV patient volumes and IMS volumes in the earnings call.

Other Opinions

RBC Capital Markets is also optimistic about Gilead, and maintains a Buy rating on the stock.

Finally, Mark Schoenebaum of Evercore maintains a Buy rating and $115.00 price target on the shares. The rating and price target (boosted from a previous $108.00) seek to reflect an updated model that includes “new information disclosed by the company during Q1’15 earnings call, pipeline updates” and the firm’s new estimates, based on its revised outlook for sales in HIV.