4 Reasons To Consider Adding Celldex To Your Portfolio

Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. CLDX is a biopharmaceutical company developing immunotherapy technologies and other cancer-targeting biologics. The company is still in development stage and does not have any marketed product in its portfolio. The company is developing its most advanced candidate, glembatumumab vedotin, in triple negative breast cancer and metastatic melanoma.

The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and looks like a good investment now.

Let's see the reasons why this stock can prove to be a valuable addition to your portfolio in 2018.

Favorable Share Price Movement: Shares of Celldex have risen 11% in the past six months while the industry registered a loss of 2.9%. Moreover, the company is trading at cheaper price/book ratio of 1.66 compared with the industry's 4.07. The company is also in a better position to pay its obligations as its current ratio is 5.91.

Rising Estimates: In fact, Celldex's earnings performance has been pretty impressive, with the company exceeding expectations in three of the past four quarters and meeting the same once. The average positive earnings surprise over the last four quarters is 15.36%. Moreover, loss estimates for 2018 have narrowed 6.25% in the past 60 days. Revenues are expected to grow 28.4% in 2018 from 2017.

Pipeline Progress: Celldex's most advanced pipeline candidate glembatumumab vedotin is being investigated in a phase IIb study for triple negative breast cancer and in a separate phase II study for metastatic melanoma. The data from the breast cancer study is expected in the second quarter of 2018.

Moreover, Celldex is also evaluating glembatumumab in combination with varlilumab or a checkpoint inhibitor arm, including either Bristol-Myers Squibb Company's BMY Opdivo or Merck & Co, Inc.'s MRK Keytruda.  In the melanoma study, glembatumumab performed well in the single agent setting.

Apart from glembatumumab vedotin, Celldex has several promising candidates in its pipeline, including varlilumab (being evaluated in phase II in combination with Opdivo for various cancers), CDX-1401/CDX-301 (phase II—multiple solid tumors; in collaboration with CITN) and CDX-014 (phase I—advanced renal cell carcinoma) among others.

Acquisitions & Collaborations: Celldex has a collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers, which provides the company a strong partner with expertise in the field of immuno-oncology and strong financials. Also, the acquisition of privately held development-stage company, Kolltan Pharmaceuticals strengthened its immuno-oncology pipeline by adding a unique platform of antibodies targeting receptor tyrosine kinases.

Conclusion

Although Celldex is developing its candidates in several cancer indications, the oncology market is highly competitive. With immuno-oncology attracting a lot of interest, companies like Juno Therapeutics, Inc. JUNO, bluebird and others are all involved in the development of immuno-oncology treatments.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
 
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company BMY: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Merck & Company, Inc. MRK: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. CLDX: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Juno Therapeutics, Inc. JUNO: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
 
Zacks Investment Research