UBS Upgrades Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) to Buy; More Bullish on Opdivo

UBS upgraded Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) from Neutral to Buy with a price target of $75.00 (from $65.00), saying they like the opportunity "right here, right now." The firm is more bullish on Opdivo and raises 2020E sales estiamtes by ~$2 billion.

Analyst Marc Goodman commented, "We are raising our Opdivo sales forecast for 2020 from $8B to ~$10B to reflect the stronger than expected renal cancer data at ESMO, larger lung market and additional smaller new indications. Further, we are letting most of the upside drop to the bottom line as mgt. is indicating that we should start to see significant operating leverage post 2017. Thus, we are now assuming operating margins in the 35-40% range in 2020 up from 30-35%. This raised our 2015-2020E EPS growth from 18% to 24% CAGR and increased our 2020E EPS from $4.16 to $5.34. We believe Opdivo provides Bristol with clear leadership in the emerging I/O space; however, Bristol also has a large portfolio of other I/O candidates for which we give no value and for which we should get clinical data in the next 12-24 months which would provide further upside to our model."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. click here. For more ratings news on Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. click here.

Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. closed at $57.46 yesterday.

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