Connect with us

3 Monster Growth Stocks Gearing up for Gains

3 Monster Growth Stocks Gearing up for Gains

Published

on

Just when it looked like time to throw in the towel, the market pulled through and delivered a win. Stabilizing crude oil prices, a few better-than-expected earnings reports as well as the possibility of a fresh fiscal stimulus package all helped inspire confidence among investors.

While April's rally doesn’t necessarily signal that the worst is behind us, it’s encouraging to say the least. Add in the opportunity to find exciting growth plays, and you have our attention.

According to the Wall Street pros, even amid the ongoing public health crisis, a select group has set itself up for growth to the upside, pointing specifically to the healthcare sector. Stocks falling into this category are well positioned within the industry, and aren’t just in it for the short-term. Rather, these names are poised for some serious share price appreciation through the next year and beyond.

We all know that past performance won’t guarantee future results. Still, the best place to start looking for tomorrow’s high-growth stocks is among yesterday’s winners. Using TipRanks’ database, we’ve found three healthcare stocks that saw hefty gains in 2020. Each name is well-loved by Wall Street analysts, and has received enough bullish calls to score a “Strong Buy” consensus rating.

Compugen Ltd. (CGEN)

Genomics-based drug and diagnostic discovery company Compugen specializes in developing therapeutic and diagnostic biomarker product candidates including proteins and monoclonal antibodies. With an already achieved 147% year-to-date gain and an impressive lead candidate, COM701, the analyst community sees vast potential for the company in the immuno-oncology (IO) space.

Weighing in for investment firm SunTrust, analyst Asthika Goonewardene calls COM701 “first-in-class” and the “strongest lever in a hot, new immuno-oncology (IO) cluster of potential drug targets.” “Correctly targeting this IO cluster not only takes the brakes off the immune cells (blocking antagonist checkpoints) but also steps on the gas pedal (agonist effect). CGEN's approach may achieve this,” he explained.

Part of what sets CGEN’s asset apart is that it acts on a different component of the cluster, with current data suggesting this approach will lead to better results. It should be noted that CGEN is the only player currently targeting this mechanism, putting it two to three years ahead of its peers, in Goonewardene’s opinion. The analyst added, “CGEN recently announced COM701 showed single agent activity (tumor shrinkage) at a more optimal dose. This is a key hurdle in IO and backs our positive sentiment.”

Looking forward, Goonewardene believes that data releases slated for the second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021 should demonstrate the ideal combinations of COM701 so it can be further evaluated in selected tumor types and achieve ~$3 billion in unadjusted peak sales by 2029.

As it also has a collaboration with industry heavyweight Bristol Myers and other top players are developing candidates to target the TIGIT component of the cluster, it’s no wonder Goonewardene takes a bullish stance on CGEN. To kick off his coverage, he published a Buy rating and set a $16 price target.

All in all, the rest of the Street echoes the analyst’s sentiment. Only Buy ratings have been assigned in the last three months, 4 to be exact, and thus, the consensus rating is a Strong Buy. At $18.00, the average price target is more aggressive than Goonewardene’s and suggests 23% upside potential. (See Compugen stock analysis on TipRanks)

Cue Biopharma, Inc. (CUE)   

Hoping to provide better treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases, Cue Biopharma is developing a novel class of injectable biologics to selectively engage and modulate targeted T cells within the body. In the last month alone, shares have climbed 88% higher, with one analyst noting that the current state of the market has set it up for even more gains.

JMP Securities’ Reni Benjamin tells clients that after a conference call with the company’s CSO and CMO, he has a better understanding of its Immuno-STAT platform and future clinical plans. With respect to the platform, the analyst found its breadth and depth promising, with it potentially being able to address multiple indications. Take its CUE-101 candidate for example. While the therapy was evaluated first in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), it could potentially be used to treat any HPV16-driven cancer.

Expounding on this, Benjamin said, “Notably, prototypes for the next-generation of molecules have already emerged, with a pre-made scaffold receptive for chemical peptide conjugation (instead of fusion protein) that allows for even easier target switch, streamlined manufacturing, and potential registrational efficiencies Further, replacing the co-stimulator with a dampener (e.g., PD-L1) has the potential to drive the use of Immuno-STAT toward autoimmune-based indications...”

Additionally, a robust level of selectivity and therapeutic potency was shown by preclinical data. “Despite competitors that have engineered the ability to avoid regulatory T cells, CUE has designed a product candidate that can not only avoid regulatory T cells, but also activate antigen-specific T cell repertoires. Importantly, the Immuno-STATs are able to activate both pre-existing and naive T cells,” Benjamin commented.

It should also be noted that management has designed its ongoing first-in-human study with the goal of achieving platform validation. Combine this with a Merck collaboration advancing in type 1 diabetes and a $51 million pro forma cash position, and you get a bullish analyst review.

To this end, Benjamin kept a Market Outperform rating and $30 price target on the stock. Should this target be met, a 21% twelve-month gain could be in the cards. (To watch Benjamin’s track record, click here)

Turning now to the rest of the Street, other analysts like what they’re seeing. With 100% Street support, the consensus is unanimous: CUE is a Strong Buy. (See Cue stock analysis on TipRanks)

GenMark Diagnostics (GNMK)

Using its patented eSensor electrochemical detection technology, GenMark develops diagnostic instruments and multiplex molecular panels. While its ePlex SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) test has helped drive huge gains, 110% in the last month, some members of the Street believe its future is only getting brighter.

Back in March, the company announced that its test had been granted FDA emergency use authorization (EUA). The test can be run on GNMK's ePlex system, and each test is expected to be priced at around $110. Part of the excitement surrounding the test is related to its speed, with it able to produce results in 90 minutes. Not to mention 96 tests can be run in eight-hour shifts.

Thanks to the massive level of interest, the test was widely expected to serve as a significant tailwind for the company in 2020. Based on GNMK’s preliminary Q1 2020 results, this appears to have been the case. In its preannouncement, GNMK reported Q1 revenue grew 80% year-over-year to hit $38.7 million, flying past the Street’s $26.4 million (23% year-over-year growth) estimate. Adding to the good news, the company is slated to see some serious gross margin expansion. We’re talking about 40% here.

Even though these figures are certainly impressive, BTIG analyst Sung Ji Nam notes that there are a few important factors to consider. First and foremost, RP demand had more of an effect on revenue than the COVID-19 tests. “While we expect continued tailwind for COVID-19 testing near-term, we are more encouraged by the strong ePlex placements in the quarter which bode well for GNMK's core syndromic panel testing business both in the near term and longer-term,” he stated.

As for the second, Nam commented, “Full year revenue guidance was raised to 27-39% growth vs. 14-25%, previously: While the full-year revenue guidance was raised by the 1Q beat, GNMK has better visibility than most for its business near term and is well-positioned for the remainder of the year, in our view, given the strong momentum for the RP panel and COVID-19 testing. GNMK is also currently developing an ePlex RP2 Panel that will include the SARS-CoV-2 viral target with funding from BARDA (up to $749,000), which the company expects to have available for the next flu season.”

With GNMK continuing to expand its test menu in sydromic panel testing and its solid standing in a rapidly growing segment of the IVD market, the deal is sealed for Nam, as he reiterates a Buy rating on the stock. (To watch Nam’s track record, click here)

Like Nam, the rest of the Street has high hopes for this stock. GNMK’s Strong Buy consensus rating breaks down into 4 Buys and 1 Hold issued in the last three months. (See GenMark stock analysis on TipRanks)

To find good ideas for healthcare stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.

The post 3 Monster Growth Stocks Gearing up for Gains appeared first on TipRanks Financial Blog.

Read More

Continue Reading

Government

Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

Authored by Michael Barone via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The headlines coming out of the Super…

Published

on

Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

Authored by Michael Barone via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The headlines coming out of the Super Tuesday primaries have got it right. Barring cataclysmic changes, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be the Republican and Democratic nominees for president in 2024.

(Left) President Joe Biden delivers remarks on canceling student debt at Culver City Julian Dixon Library in Culver City, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2024. (Right) Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump stands on stage during a campaign event at Big League Dreams Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 27, 2024. (Mario Tama/Getty Images; David Becker/Getty Images)

With Nikki Haley’s withdrawal, there will be no more significantly contested primaries or caucuses—the earliest both parties’ races have been over since something like the current primary-dominated system was put in place in 1972.

The primary results have spotlighted some of both nominees’ weaknesses.

Donald Trump lost high-income, high-educated constituencies, including the entire metro area—aka the Swamp. Many but by no means all Haley votes there were cast by Biden Democrats. Mr. Trump can’t afford to lose too many of the others in target states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Majorities and large minorities of voters in overwhelmingly Latino counties in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley and some in Houston voted against Joe Biden, and even more against Senate nominee Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas).

Returns from Hispanic precincts in New Hampshire and Massachusetts show the same thing. Mr. Biden can’t afford to lose too many Latino votes in target states like Arizona and Georgia.

When Mr. Trump rode down that escalator in 2015, commentators assumed he’d repel Latinos. Instead, Latino voters nationally, and especially the closest eyewitnesses of Biden’s open-border policy, have been trending heavily Republican.

High-income liberal Democrats may sport lawn signs proclaiming, “In this house, we believe ... no human is illegal.” The logical consequence of that belief is an open border. But modest-income folks in border counties know that flows of illegal immigrants result in disorder, disease, and crime.

There is plenty of impatience with increased disorder in election returns below the presidential level. Consider Los Angeles County, America’s largest county, with nearly 10 million people, more people than 40 of the 50 states. It voted 71 percent for Mr. Biden in 2020.

Current returns show county District Attorney George Gascon winning only 21 percent of the vote in the nonpartisan primary. He’ll apparently face Republican Nathan Hochman, a critic of his liberal policies, in November.

Gascon, elected after the May 2020 death of counterfeit-passing suspect George Floyd in Minneapolis, is one of many county prosecutors supported by billionaire George Soros. His policies include not charging juveniles as adults, not seeking higher penalties for gang membership or use of firearms, and bringing fewer misdemeanor cases.

The predictable result has been increased car thefts, burglaries, and personal robberies. Some 120 assistant district attorneys have left the office, and there’s a backlog of 10,000 unprosecuted cases.

More than a dozen other Soros-backed and similarly liberal prosecutors have faced strong opposition or have left office.

St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner resigned last May amid lawsuits seeking her removal, Milwaukee’s John Chisholm retired in January, and Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby was defeated in July 2022 and convicted of perjury in September 2023. Last November, Loudoun County, Virginia, voters (62 percent Biden) ousted liberal Buta Biberaj, who declined to prosecute a transgender student for assault, and in June 2022 voters in San Francisco (85 percent Biden) recalled famed radical Chesa Boudin.

Similarly, this Tuesday, voters in San Francisco passed ballot measures strengthening police powers and requiring treatment of drug-addicted welfare recipients.

In retrospect, it appears the Floyd video, appearing after three months of COVID-19 confinement, sparked a frenzied, even crazed reaction, especially among the highly educated and articulate. One fatal incident was seen as proof that America’s “systemic racism” was worse than ever and that police forces should be defunded and perhaps abolished.

2020 was “the year America went crazy,” I wrote in January 2021, a year in which police funding was actually cut by Democrats in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver. A year in which young New York Times (NYT) staffers claimed they were endangered by the publication of Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) opinion article advocating calling in military forces if necessary to stop rioting, as had been done in Detroit in 1967 and Los Angeles in 1992. A craven NYT publisher even fired the editorial page editor for running the article.

Evidence of visible and tangible discontent with increasing violence and its consequences—barren and locked shelves in Manhattan chain drugstores, skyrocketing carjackings in Washington, D.C.—is as unmistakable in polls and election results as it is in daily life in large metropolitan areas. Maybe 2024 will turn out to be the year even liberal America stopped acting crazy.

Chaos and disorder work against incumbents, as they did in 1968 when Democrats saw their party’s popular vote fall from 61 percent to 43 percent.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 23:20

Read More

Continue Reading

Government

Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The…

Published

on

Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reviewed no data when deciding in 2023 to keep its COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place.

Doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in Washington in a file image. (Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said on May 1, 2023, that the end of many other federal mandates “will not impact current policies at the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

He said the mandate was remaining for VA health care personnel “to ensure the safety of veterans and our colleagues.”

Mr. McDonough did not cite any studies or other data. A VA spokesperson declined to provide any data that was reviewed when deciding not to rescind the mandate. The Epoch Times submitted a Freedom of Information Act for “all documents outlining which data was relied upon when establishing the mandate when deciding to keep the mandate in place.”

The agency searched for such data and did not find any.

The VA does not even attempt to justify its policies with science, because it can’t,” Leslie Manookian, president and founder of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, told The Epoch Times.

“The VA just trusts that the process and cost of challenging its unfounded policies is so onerous, most people are dissuaded from even trying,” she added.

The VA’s mandate remains in place to this day.

The VA’s website claims that vaccines “help protect you from getting severe illness” and “offer good protection against most COVID-19 variants,” pointing in part to observational data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that estimate the vaccines provide poor protection against symptomatic infection and transient shielding against hospitalization.

There have also been increasing concerns among outside scientists about confirmed side effects like heart inflammation—the VA hid a safety signal it detected for the inflammation—and possible side effects such as tinnitus, which shift the benefit-risk calculus.

President Joe Biden imposed a slate of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in 2021. The VA was the first federal agency to implement a mandate.

President Biden rescinded the mandates in May 2023, citing a drop in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. His administration maintains the choice to require vaccines was the right one and saved lives.

“Our administration’s vaccination requirements helped ensure the safety of workers in critical workforces including those in the healthcare and education sectors, protecting themselves and the populations they serve, and strengthening their ability to provide services without disruptions to operations,” the White House said.

Some experts said requiring vaccination meant many younger people were forced to get a vaccine despite the risks potentially outweighing the benefits, leaving fewer doses for older adults.

By mandating the vaccines to younger people and those with natural immunity from having had COVID, older people in the U.S. and other countries did not have access to them, and many people might have died because of that,” Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine on leave from Harvard Medical School, told The Epoch Times previously.

The VA was one of just a handful of agencies to keep its mandate in place following the removal of many federal mandates.

“At this time, the vaccine requirement will remain in effect for VA health care personnel, including VA psychologists, pharmacists, social workers, nursing assistants, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, peer specialists, medical support assistants, engineers, housekeepers, and other clinical, administrative, and infrastructure support employees,” Mr. McDonough wrote to VA employees at the time.

This also includes VA volunteers and contractors. Effectively, this means that any Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employee, volunteer, or contractor who works in VHA facilities, visits VHA facilities, or provides direct care to those we serve will still be subject to the vaccine requirement at this time,” he said. “We continue to monitor and discuss this requirement, and we will provide more information about the vaccination requirements for VA health care employees soon. As always, we will process requests for vaccination exceptions in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies.”

The version of the shots cleared in the fall of 2022, and available through the fall of 2023, did not have any clinical trial data supporting them.

A new version was approved in the fall of 2023 because there were indications that the shots not only offered temporary protection but also that the level of protection was lower than what was observed during earlier stages of the pandemic.

Ms. Manookian, whose group has challenged several of the federal mandates, said that the mandate “illustrates the dangers of the administrative state and how these federal agencies have become a law unto themselves.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 22:10

Read More

Continue Reading

Spread & Containment

The Coming Of The Police State In America

The Coming Of The Police State In America

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

The National Guard and the State Police are now…

Published

on

The Coming Of The Police State In America

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

The National Guard and the State Police are now patrolling the New York City subway system in an attempt to do something about the explosion of crime. As part of this, there are bag checks and new surveillance of all passengers. No legislation, no debate, just an edict from the mayor.

Many citizens who rely on this system for transportation might welcome this. It’s a city of strict gun control, and no one knows for sure if they have the right to defend themselves. Merchants have been harassed and even arrested for trying to stop looting and pillaging in their own shops.

The message has been sent: Only the police can do this job. Whether they do it or not is another matter.

Things on the subway system have gotten crazy. If you know it well, you can manage to travel safely, but visitors to the city who take the wrong train at the wrong time are taking grave risks.

In actual fact, it’s guaranteed that this will only end in confiscating knives and other things that people carry in order to protect themselves while leaving the actual criminals even more free to prey on citizens.

The law-abiding will suffer and the criminals will grow more numerous. It will not end well.

When you step back from the details, what we have is the dawning of a genuine police state in the United States. It only starts in New York City. Where is the Guard going to be deployed next? Anywhere is possible.

If the crime is bad enough, citizens will welcome it. It must have been this way in most times and places that when the police state arrives, the people cheer.

We will all have our own stories of how this came to be. Some might begin with the passage of the Patriot Act and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security in 2001. Some will focus on gun control and the taking away of citizens’ rights to defend themselves.

My own version of events is closer in time. It began four years ago this month with lockdowns. That’s what shattered the capacity of civil society to function in the United States. Everything that has happened since follows like one domino tumbling after another.

It goes like this:

1) lockdown,

2) loss of moral compass and spreading of loneliness and nihilism,

3) rioting resulting from citizen frustration, 4) police absent because of ideological hectoring,

5) a rise in uncontrolled immigration/refugees,

6) an epidemic of ill health from substance abuse and otherwise,

7) businesses flee the city

8) cities fall into decay, and that results in

9) more surveillance and police state.

The 10th stage is the sacking of liberty and civilization itself.

It doesn’t fall out this way at every point in history, but this seems like a solid outline of what happened in this case. Four years is a very short period of time to see all of this unfold. But it is a fact that New York City was more-or-less civilized only four years ago. No one could have predicted that it would come to this so quickly.

But once the lockdowns happened, all bets were off. Here we had a policy that most directly trampled on all freedoms that we had taken for granted. Schools, businesses, and churches were slammed shut, with various levels of enforcement. The entire workforce was divided between essential and nonessential, and there was widespread confusion about who precisely was in charge of designating and enforcing this.

It felt like martial law at the time, as if all normal civilian law had been displaced by something else. That something had to do with public health, but there was clearly more going on, because suddenly our social media posts were censored and we were being asked to do things that made no sense, such as mask up for a virus that evaded mask protection and walk in only one direction in grocery aisles.

Vast amounts of the white-collar workforce stayed home—and their kids, too—until it became too much to bear. The city became a ghost town. Most U.S. cities were the same.

As the months of disaster rolled on, the captives were let out of their houses for the summer in order to protest racism but no other reason. As a way of excusing this, the same public health authorities said that racism was a virus as bad as COVID-19, so therefore it was permitted.

The protests had turned to riots in many cities, and the police were being defunded and discouraged to do anything about the problem. Citizens watched in horror as downtowns burned and drug-crazed freaks took over whole sections of cities. It was like every standard of decency had been zapped out of an entire swath of the population.

Meanwhile, large checks were arriving in people’s bank accounts, defying every normal economic expectation. How could people not be working and get their bank accounts more flush with cash than ever? There was a new law that didn’t even require that people pay rent. How weird was that? Even student loans didn’t need to be paid.

By the fall, recess from lockdown was over and everyone was told to go home again. But this time they had a job to do: They were supposed to vote. Not at the polling places, because going there would only spread germs, or so the media said. When the voting results finally came in, it was the absentee ballots that swung the election in favor of the opposition party that actually wanted more lockdowns and eventually pushed vaccine mandates on the whole population.

The new party in control took note of the large population movements out of cities and states that they controlled. This would have a large effect on voting patterns in the future. But they had a plan. They would open the borders to millions of people in the guise of caring for refugees. These new warm bodies would become voters in time and certainly count on the census when it came time to reapportion political power.

Meanwhile, the native population had begun to swim in ill health from substance abuse, widespread depression, and demoralization, plus vaccine injury. This increased dependency on the very institutions that had caused the problem in the first place: the medical/scientific establishment.

The rise of crime drove the small businesses out of the city. They had barely survived the lockdowns, but they certainly could not survive the crime epidemic. This undermined the tax base of the city and allowed the criminals to take further control.

The same cities became sanctuaries for the waves of migrants sacking the country, and partisan mayors actually used tax dollars to house these invaders in high-end hotels in the name of having compassion for the stranger. Citizens were pushed out to make way for rampaging migrant hordes, as incredible as this seems.

But with that, of course, crime rose ever further, inciting citizen anger and providing a pretext to bring in the police state in the form of the National Guard, now tasked with cracking down on crime in the transportation system.

What’s the next step? It’s probably already here: mass surveillance and censorship, plus ever-expanding police power. This will be accompanied by further population movements, as those with the means to do so flee the city and even the country and leave it for everyone else to suffer.

As I tell the story, all of this seems inevitable. It is not. It could have been stopped at any point. A wise and prudent political leadership could have admitted the error from the beginning and called on the country to rediscover freedom, decency, and the difference between right and wrong. But ego and pride stopped that from happening, and we are left with the consequences.

The government grows ever bigger and civil society ever less capable of managing itself in large urban centers. Disaster is unfolding in real time, mitigated only by a rising stock market and a financial system that has yet to fall apart completely.

Are we at the middle stages of total collapse, or at the point where the population and people in leadership positions wise up and decide to put an end to the downward slide? It’s hard to know. But this much we do know: There is a growing pocket of resistance out there that is fed up and refuses to sit by and watch this great country be sacked and taken over by everything it was set up to prevent.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 16:20

Read More

Continue Reading

Trending