UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Downgrades Corcept Therapeutics to Neutral, Lowers PT Following 1Q13 Earnings Report

In a report published Monday, Piper Jaffray analyst Charles C. Duncan downgraded the rating on Corcept Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CORT) from Overweight to Neutral, and lowered the price target from $4.00 to $2.00.In the report, Duncan noted, “Corcept reported 1Q13 earnings yesterday, with Korlym revenues of $1.7MM significantly missing our ($3.6MM) and consensus ($2.5MM) estimates (Exhibit 1). In addition, we are attending the AACE meeting and have had an opportunity to speak with Cushing's treating experts. We believe that Korlym's differentiated mechanism is only slowly driving a paradigm shift in Cushing's treatment. Although progress may be more tangible by YE13, due to the lack of visibility and tepid results thus far, we are revising our expectations for Korlym lower. Thus we are reducing our ramp for Korlym in Cushing's as well as reducing our peak penetration expectations by 50% in both the U.S. and Europe (Exhibits 2 and 3). Based on our new valuation and expectations for extended timelines for clinical catalysts from the pipeline (psychotic depression, proprietary GR-II antagonists), we are downgrading Corcept from Overweight to Neutral and reducing our price target from $4 to $2.”Corcept Therapeutics closed on Friday at $1.77.