UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrades Vertex Pharmaceuticals to Overweight, Raises PT Ahead of Expected Combination Approvals

In a report published Monday, Piper Jaffray analyst Edward A. Tenthoff upgraded the rating on

from Neutral to Overweight, and raised the price target from $87.50 to $125.00. In the report, Piper Jaffray noted, “Over the weekend at the North American Cystic Fibrosis (NACF) Conference in Atlanta, Vertex presented data from the Phase III TRAFFIC and TRANSPORT trials of KALYDECO + lumacaftor (VX-809) in homozygous F508del patients. We are upgrading Vertex to Overweight from Neutral and increasing our price target to $125 from $87.50 ahead of likely approval of the combination next year. Specifically, we forecast CF sales of $469M this year, growing to $1.0B in 2015 and $3.1B in 2016 as the combo is launched globally in homozygous F508del patients. As a result, we anticipate Vertex will return to profitability in 4Q:15 with non-GAAP diluted EPS of $4.81 in 2016.” Vertex Pharmaceuticals closed on Friday at $104.73.