Barclays Expands Coverage To 7 New Biotech Stocks

Barclays announced expanded coverage on seven biotech stocks Wednesday. Below are the new ratings and price targets along with comments from analyst Geoff Meacham.

Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ACHN was rated at Underweight with an $8 price target. The firm's thesis was that "Achillion is likely to get left behind even with solid clinical data; a takeout may be one of the only sources of longer-term upside potential, and one seems less likely given the current dynamics of the hep C market."

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALNY was rated at Overweight with a $125 price target. "The company's RNAi platform has been optimized at every step and is now gaining momentum across many clinical programs." Clinical risk was seen as an uncertainty but Meacham liked what he saw in the stock.

Chimerix Inc CMRX was rated at Overweight with a $55 price target. With phase 3 data coming in the second half of 2015, clinical risk was the biggest concern, but Meacham thought "phase 2 results should be a good indicator of success."

Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc ENTA was rated at Equal-weight with a $35 price target. The firm forecasted "peak WW Viekira Pak sales of $2.5B and see limited room for upside given increasing competition in hep C."

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. IRWD was rated at Equal-weight with an $18 price target. Overall, Meacham believed that "fundamentals are solid for Ironwood based on the US Linzess trajectory," but the analyst did "not see a catalyst that materially changes the risk/reward profile."

Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. NBIX was rated at Overweight with a $60 price target. The company was "levered to Elagolix royalties and VMAT2 value, the latter of which only reflects the US market and on label use. Further de-risking of both assets should raise the value dramatically," and the analyst thought investors would not have to wait very long for the data.

PTC Therapeutics, Inc. PTCT was rated at Overweight with a $100 price target. The firm had "conservative assumptions for the ongoing DMD launch and the CF opportunity" which did "not imply value for RG7800 or additional Translarna indications." Meacham viewed "the risk/reward profile on pipeline optionality as very attractive."

Achillion Pharmaceuticals and PTC Therapeutics posted the largest moves on Wednesday.

Achillion Pharmaceuticals recently traded at $11.73, down 3.38 percent.

PTC Therapeutics recently traded at $71.29, up 3.20 percent.