Piper Jaffray Maintains Overweight, $12 Target on Akorn

Piper Jaffray reiterates its Overweight rating and $12 target price on Akorn AKRX as company stock saw weakness related to ViroPharma's three years of exclusivity following Vancocin label acquisition. Piper Jaffray comments, “We believe yesterday's weakness in Akorn shares as a result of the news was unwarranted, given that the dramatic EPS growth we should see for 2012 and beyond is coming from the expansion of the core ophthalmics and injectibles businesses (generic Vancocin is not even in our model). In other words, though AKRX's filing on generic Vancocin could be an attractive opportunity, contribution from the product is not needed to support a long-term EPS CAGR.” AKRX closed at $9.97 per share on Wednesday.