Gilead Sciences Spikes Higher As Barron's Suggests Looking Beyond Hepatitis-C

Gilead Sciences, Inc. GILD shares spiked over the $104 level Friday morning following a Barron’s blog post.

The blog post asked if it is time for investors to look beyond hepatitis-C drugs. JP Morgan’s Cory Kasimov was quoted as noting that there is “intense focus on near term commercial and competitive Hepatitis-C trends, and this will likely continue to drive sentiment over the coming quarters."

Kasimov continued, "we suspect that investor expectations may have caught up with the extraordinary early performance of Gilead’s Hepatitis-C franchise, with HIV remaining a stable but meaningful source of revenue.

“Thus, an increasingly important question relates to how Gilead utilizes its potentially unprecedented upcoming cash flow generation to mold the next stage of the company’s future.”

Kasimov estimated that “Gilead could generate in excess of $30B in cash in the next two years alone, and potentially $80B+ over the next 5 years. Put into perspective, that’s ~$15B more than the current combined cap of our entire small- & mid-cap coverage universe comprised of 20 companies.”

Gilead Sciences recently traded at $104.01, up 2.1 percent.