Cantor Fitzgerald Upgrades Apricus Biosciences (APRI) to Buy

Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Apricus Biosciences (NASDAQ: APRI) from Hold to Buy with a price target of $3.00 (from $2.50). Analyst Irina Rivkind Koffler adjusted valuation to reflect the company's pipeline.

"Q:14 earnings missed consensus, but pipeline provides a silver lining," said Koffler. "Apricus reported no revenue in 1Q:14, with a net loss of $3.3M and an EPS loss of ($0.09) versus FactSet consensus of $2.9M in revenue and ($0.03) loss per share. The company plans to develop its pipeline asset RayVa (topical alprostadil) for Raynaud's disease secondary to scleroderma and will initiate a Phase IIa trial in 2H:14. We have added 20% risk-adjusted revenues to our model, which raised DCF valuation to $3.00 from $2.50 and is the basis of our upgrade to BUY from HOLD. We also lowered 2014 license fee royalty estimates. At the end of the first quarter, the company had $22.5M in cash and cash equivalents, which management believes to be sufficient through 2Q:15."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Apricus Biosciences click here. For more ratings news on Apricus Biosciences click here.

Shares of Apricus Biosciences closed at $2.25 yesterday.

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