UBS Remains Bullish Following Baxalta's (BXLT) Solid 4Q Results

UBS maintained a Buy rating on Baxalta Incorporated (NYSE: BXLT), and cut the price target to $46.00 (from $47.00), following the company's 4Q earnings report. Sales were $1,763 mil, $57 mil above consensus. EPS of $0.57 was 2c above consensus of $0.55. Management expects 1Q16 EPS of $0.44-0.46, short of consensus of $0.55, due in part to comps against prior year hedging gains and standup costs.

Analyst Matt Miksic commented, "Haemophilia (FVIII) and Biotherapeutics delivered the brunt of the upside to our numbers (up 4% and 22%, respectively) while IVIG (up 3% CC) was short of our 8% growth estimate, due primarily to tough comps against prior-year HyQvia stocking orders. For the P&L, upside in sales net of COGS (+14c) and a lower tax rate (+2c) were partially offset by higher SG&A spend (-9c), higher R&D (-3c) and lower non-op income (-2c) to deliver a 2c beat relative to our estimates. Given the solid results, we expect BXLT to continue to trade on the pending deal with Shire. We reiterate our Buy rating."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Baxalta Incorporated click here. For more ratings news on Baxalta Incorporated click here.

Shares of Baxalta Incorporated closed at $39.00 yesterday.

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