Sarepta Shares Continue Rally As Analysts Flip To Positive

The craze for Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: SRPT) shares continued into its second day, gaining about 15 percent on Tuesday. The stock nearly doubled from the $28.15 recorded on September 16. Two catalysts likely responsible for this rally include the FDA approval for the company's Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) drug and the fact that the FDA approval has triggered a potential takeover target.

Incidentally, reports link the regulator's rejection of BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN) for a similar drug in January. While the market cap of Sarepta is about $4.61 Billion, BioMarin's market cap is $17.03 billion.

Related Link: When Will The Rally In Sarepta Therapeutics End?

Investors and analysts have become bullish on the stock after the company indicated the pricing of the product. The drug will cost about $300,000 a year, and the company indicated that it is too early to provide any addressable patient pool during a conference call on Monday.

The drug, Exondys 51, will be available in 2mg and 10mg with a price tag of $1,600 and $8,000 respectively. According to Cowen's analyst estimate, Sarepta could generate peak sales of about $550 million from America while European Union could add $400 million revenue.

Following the multiple favorable news, different brokerages have issued their ratings, which are given below briefly:

• Cowen upgraded from Market Perform to Outperform rating with a target price of $64.
• Jefferies lifted its rating from Underperform to Hold with a price tag of $50.
• Oppenheimer maintains an Outperform rating and boosted price objective from $60 to $76.
• William Blair upgraded the stock from Market Perform to an Outperform rating with $88 as the price target.
• Janney Capital lifted its rating from Neutral to Buy with a target price of $65.
• Piper Jaffray boosted its rating from Neutral to Overweight.
• SunTrust upgraded the stock from Reduce to Neutral.

At time of writing, Sarepta traded up by $6.07, or 12.33 percent, to $54.96.

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