SunTrust Cuts Target On Bristol-Myers As Opdivo Estimates Revised Lower

After Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE: BMY) disclosed disappointing study results of its Opdivo, SunTrust has reduced the price target on the company's shares from $68 to $62 on lower EPS estimates for the year 2017 and 2018. However, the firm maintains its Hold rating on the stock.

Analyst John Boris boosted his sales estimate for the year 2016; he maintains his EPS expectations, however. For the year 2017 and 2018, the analyst reduced Opdivo estimate from $5.3 billion to $4.6 billion and $6.7 billion to $5.8 billion, respectively, based on Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK)'s first mover advantage for its drug, Keytruda.

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In a research note, the brokerage said, "Our ‘17E EPS decreases to $3.02 (from $3.29) vs. Street's $3.00. We lowered our PT to $62 (from $68) & maintained our Hold rating. Our $62PT is based on 20x our ‘17E EPS. BMY needs positive expressers arm of CM-227 to stop in 2017 for it to execute on its IO-IO combo strategy."

On October 9, Bristol-Myer disclosed in a statement, "Two pivotal Phase 3 studies, CheckMate -057 and CheckMate -017, which showed more than one-third of previously treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in both trials experienced ongoing responses with Opdivo, compared to no ongoing responses in the docetaxel arm."

However, the results were below the expectations of analysts.

At last check early in Monday's regular trading session, Bristol-Myers Squibb was down 8.68 percent at $50.62.

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