Gilead Sciences Gets a Downgrade from BMO Capital and Wells Fargo
Author By Sophia VidaPosted on Shares of Gilead Sciences were downgraded on Monday by not one but two firms, BMO Capital and Wells Fargo.
The biotech giant was downgraded by the analysts who said it is fully valued amid market enthusiasm for its drug candidate to treat COVID-19, remdesivir.
BMO Capital’s Matthew Luchini downgraded the stock to market perform from outperform and affirmed his price target at $79. According to the analyst, Gilead’s 29% rally for 2020 through Friday was from the optimism about remdesivir.
Luchini believes the stock no longer shines on a risk/reward basis, “given continued uncertainty around the remdesivir commercial opportunity.”
The analyst is neutral on the shares “ahead of a better entry point.”
Wells Fargo analyst Jim Birchenough downgraded the stock, to equal-weight from overweight and reiterated a target price at $87. The analyst is still optimistic about remdesivir and sees it as an important part of a potential economic recovery, according to The Fly.
It was last week that the company said that in a test of 53 patients suffering severe coronavirus symptoms, “the majority demonstrated clinical improvement and no new safety signals were identified with remdesivir treatment.”
Disclaimer: We have no position in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) and have not been compensated for this article.
