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Analysts Say These 3 Stocks Are Their Top Picks for 2021

Remember back in February, when we were worried about a market correction? Back when the NASDAQ dipped 10% from its peak…

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This article was originally published by TipRanks.

Remember back in February, when we were worried about a market correction? Back when the NASDAQ dipped 10% from its peak… Yeah, well, never mind about that. Markets are up, up, up lately. A strong jobs report last Friday has helped, showing 916,000 new positions in March, the best print since last August, and almost a quarter-million higher than expectations. Rising markets make it a good time to look at the ‘top picks’ from Wall Street’s stock analysts. The three stocks we’re looking at are an interesting lot, and they have certain commonalities: a Strong Buy consensus rating, tangible upside potential for investors, and a ‘Top Pick’ review. Using the TipRanks database, we’ve pulled the details on those stocks to find out what makes them so compelling. Here are the results. Ascendis Pharma (ASND) First up, Ascendis Pharma, is an ‘emerging’ biotechnology company with a primary focus on rare diseases in endocrinology. The company has an active pipeline, with three drug candidates in clinical trials for endocrine diseases, including pediatric and adult growth hormone deficiency, adult hypoparathyroidism, and achondroplasia. The company develops its medications using its TransCon technology, which allows the direct application of proteins, peptides, and small molecules to target areas of the body through a carrier drug with known biological action. In addition to its primary pipeline, Ascendis also has two oncology drug candidates in preclinical development. The company's pediatric growth hormone deficiency (GHD) drug, TransCon HGH (lonapegsomatropin), has completed a Phase 3 trial and the company is preparing for the PDUFA date at the end of June – with expectation of launching the drug commercially on the US market in 3Q21. Ascendis anticipates a European Commission decision on use of lonapegsomatropin during 4Q21. There is an ongoing global Phase 3 trial for adults with GHD, with complete enrollment expected by early next year, and Ascendis has submitted its clinical trial notification to begin a Phase 3 trial for pediatric patients in Japan. Furthermore, the company is preparing for Phase 3 clinical trials for TransCon PTH, a treatment for adult hypoparathyroidism. The company anticipates topline results in 4Q21. As above, the company is also proceeding with clinical trial notification in Japan, for 2Q21. With all of that in the background, Wedbush analyst Liana Moussatos listed ASND as one of her top picks for 2021 “In 2021, we look forward to 1) TC-hGH/pediatric growth hormone deficiency (GHD; lonapegsomatropin) June 25, 2021, PDUFA date; 2) potential TC-hGH/GHD MAA approval in Q4:21; and 3) topline results from the pivotal Phase 3 PaTHway for TCPTH in adult hypoparathyroidism (HP) in Q4:21. We see these events as potential inflection points for the stock. We expect 2021 to be a transformative year for Ascendis in front of several potential value creation events,” Moussatos noted. In line with these comments, Moussatos rates ASND shares an Outperform (i.e. Buy), and sets a $209 price target indicating a 60% one-year upside potential. (To watch Moussatos’ track record, click here) Moussatos is no outlier on Ascendis; this stock has 6 recent reviews, with 5 to Buy and 1 to Hold. The shares are priced at $130.63 and their $191.25 average price target suggests 46% growth in the next 12 months. (See ASND stock analysis on TipRanks)
AlloVir (ALVR) The next company on our list, AlloVir, is another cutting-edge biotech firm. AlloVir’s focus is the development of allogenic, off-the-shelf virus-specific T-cell candidates. These are drugs specifically designed to prevent or treat viral infections in immunocompromised patients with T-cell deficiencies – and limited treatment options. The company’s pipeline features five candidate agents for the treatment of twelve ‘devastating’ viruses, including HHV-6, EBV, PIV, HBV, and even COVID-19. The most advanced drug candidate in the pipeline, ALVR105, also called Viralym-M, is undergoing trials for a range of applications, including the treatment of virus-associated hemorrhagic-cystitis, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and adenovirus (AdV). In addition, there are clinical studies of the drug candidate as a preventative for BKV, CMV, AdV, EBV, HHV-6 and others viral diseases. The clinical trials range from Phase 1b/2 to Phase 3. The company’s lead candidate, Viralym-M, is in an ongoing Phase 3 trial for the treatment of virus-associated hemorrhagic-cystitis. The company also tests Viralym-M in two proof-of-concept Phase 2 trials. These include a clinical study of the drug candidate as a first of its kind, multi-virus preventative for HSCT recipients and a study of the drug in the treatment of BK viremia in kidney transplant patients. These trials are ongoing, and actively recruiting patients. In addition to ALVR105/Viralym-M, the company next two most advanced programs are ALVR 109 and ALVR106. ALVR109 has entered Phase 1 proof-of-concept clinical trial as a treatment for COVID-19. Preclinical data released in December demonstrated disease specific antiviral activity. ALVR 106 has had its investigation new drug (IND) application approved, and is cleared to initiate clinical trials in the treatment of influence, PIV, and respiratory syncytial virus. In his coverage of this stock for Piper Sandler, 5-star analyst Christopher Raymond writes, “[All] important timelines remain essentially on track. To us, the most critical of those are Phase 2 POC data for Viralym-M in the prevention setting for HSCT patients and for Phase 2 POC data for Viralym-M in the treatment of BK virus in kidney transplant recipients. Those two events remain on track for 2H21. While we do not model contribution form ALVR109 (in high-risk patients with COVID-19), we note that POC data from that program is also anticipated 2H21.” At the bottom line, Raymond says, “[We] continue to view ALVR as an emerging leader in virus specific cell therapies… it remains a top 2021 pick.” To this end, Raymond gives ALVR an Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating, and his $55 price target implies a robust upside of ~132% for the year ahead. (To watch Raymond’s track record, click here) Like the Piper Sandler analyst, the rest of the Street is bullish on ALVR. 3 Buy ratings compared to no Holds or Sells add up to a Strong Buy consensus rating. At $49.33, the average price target implies upside potential of ~108%. (See ALVR stock analysis on TipRanks)
Western Digital (WDC) From biotech to high-tech, we’ll change gears and look at Western Digital. The company produces hard disks and other data storage, including SSDs and flash memory. Western Digital's products are used in the data center and cloud storage industries; Western Digital includes well-known brands like WD and SanDisk. As can be imagined, Western Digital has seen steady business in the last 18 months, despite the COVID pandemic. The move toward remote work and virtual offices put a premium on computer chips of all sorts, including memory and cloud storage. WDC’s revenues have held steady through that period, near $4 billion quarterly. For the past two years, the company has reported quarterly revenues in the range between $3.67 billion and $4.29 billion; the most recent quarter, 2Q fiscal 21, showed $3.94 billion at the top line, with non-GAAP EPS of 69 cents per share and free cash flow of $149 million. The company presented forward guidance for fiscal Q3, projecting the top line between $3.85 billion and $4.05 billion and non-GAAP EPS between 55 and 75 cents. Investors like predictability, and Western Digital’s performance has been just that. The company’s stock has benefited, and the shares are up 87% over the past 12 months. This is a modest outperformance compared to the NASDAQ index, which is up 73% over the same period. C J Muse, 5-star analyst with Evercore ISI, digs deep under the hood of Western Digital, and summing up writes, “While WDC shares are up 25% YTD, we see at least another 30% upside fueled by meaningful positive revisions to forward EPS estimates…. consensus estimates are moving materially higher with potential CY21 exit run rate of ~$10+ (cons $7.60) and additional upside into CY22 (we see stretch goal of $15.00 vs. current cons $7.44)…. With vision to at least 30% upside as the NAND industry emerges from a cyclical trough, WDC remains a Top Pick.” Muse puts a $100 price target on WDC, for a 38% one-year upside potential. (To watch Muse’s track record, click here) Tech companies typically garner a lot of analyst attention, and Western Digital has 21 recent stock reviews. These break down to 17 Buys against just 4 Holds, giving the stock its Strong Buy consensus rating. Shares are priced at $72.22, and the $80.26 average target implies an 11% upside from that level. (See WDC stock analysis on TipRanks)
To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment. The post Analysts Say These 3 Stocks Are Their Top Picks for 2021 appeared first on TipRanks Financial Blog.

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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…

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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

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Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study

Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study

Authored by Amie Dahnke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

People with inadequate…

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Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study

Authored by Amie Dahnke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

People with inadequate iron levels in their blood due to a COVID-19 infection could be at greater risk of long COVID.

(Shutterstock)

A new study indicates that problems with iron levels in the bloodstream likely trigger chronic inflammation and other conditions associated with the post-COVID phenomenon. The findings, published on March 1 in Nature Immunology, could offer new ways to treat or prevent the condition.

Long COVID Patients Have Low Iron Levels

Researchers at the University of Cambridge pinpointed low iron as a potential link to long-COVID symptoms thanks to a study they initiated shortly after the start of the pandemic. They recruited people who tested positive for the virus to provide blood samples for analysis over a year, which allowed the researchers to look for post-infection changes in the blood. The researchers looked at 214 samples and found that 45 percent of patients reported symptoms of long COVID that lasted between three and 10 months.

In analyzing the blood samples, the research team noticed that people experiencing long COVID had low iron levels, contributing to anemia and low red blood cell production, just two weeks after they were diagnosed with COVID-19. This was true for patients regardless of age, sex, or the initial severity of their infection.

According to one of the study co-authors, the removal of iron from the bloodstream is a natural process and defense mechanism of the body.

But it can jeopardize a person’s recovery.

When the body has an infection, it responds by removing iron from the bloodstream. This protects us from potentially lethal bacteria that capture the iron in the bloodstream and grow rapidly. It’s an evolutionary response that redistributes iron in the body, and the blood plasma becomes an iron desert,” University of Oxford professor Hal Drakesmith said in a press release. “However, if this goes on for a long time, there is less iron for red blood cells, so oxygen is transported less efficiently affecting metabolism and energy production, and for white blood cells, which need iron to work properly. The protective mechanism ends up becoming a problem.”

The research team believes that consistently low iron levels could explain why individuals with long COVID continue to experience fatigue and difficulty exercising. As such, the researchers suggested iron supplementation to help regulate and prevent the often debilitating symptoms associated with long COVID.

It isn’t necessarily the case that individuals don’t have enough iron in their body, it’s just that it’s trapped in the wrong place,” Aimee Hanson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge who worked on the study, said in the press release. “What we need is a way to remobilize the iron and pull it back into the bloodstream, where it becomes more useful to the red blood cells.”

The research team pointed out that iron supplementation isn’t always straightforward. Achieving the right level of iron varies from person to person. Too much iron can cause stomach issues, ranging from constipation, nausea, and abdominal pain to gastritis and gastric lesions.

1 in 5 Still Affected by Long COVID

COVID-19 has affected nearly 40 percent of Americans, with one in five of those still suffering from symptoms of long COVID, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Long COVID is marked by health issues that continue at least four weeks after an individual was initially diagnosed with COVID-19. Symptoms can last for days, weeks, months, or years and may include fatigue, cough or chest pain, headache, brain fog, depression or anxiety, digestive issues, and joint or muscle pain.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 12:50

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February Employment Situation

By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000…

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By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert

The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000 average over the previous 12 months. The payroll data for January and December were revised down by a total of 167,000. The private sector added 223,000 new jobs, the largest gain since May of last year.

Temporary help services employment continues a steep decline after a sharp post-pandemic rise.

Average hours of work increased from 34.2 to 34.3. The increase, along with the 223,000 private employment increase led to a hefty increase in total hours of 5.6% at an annualized rate, also the largest increase since May of last year.

The establishment report, once again, beat “expectations;” the WSJ survey of economists was 198,000. Other than the downward revisions, mentioned above, another bit of negative news was a smallish increase in wage growth, from $34.52 to $34.57.

The household survey shows that the labor force increased 150,000, a drop in employment of 184,000 and an increase in the number of unemployed persons of 334,000. The labor force participation rate held steady at 62.5, the employment to population ratio decreased from 60.2 to 60.1 and the unemployment rate increased from 3.66 to 3.86. Remember that the unemployment rate is the number of unemployed relative to the labor force (the number employed plus the number unemployed). Consequently, the unemployment rate can go up if the number of unemployed rises holding fixed the labor force, or if the labor force shrinks holding the number unemployed unchanged. An increase in the unemployment rate is not necessarily a bad thing: it may reflect a strong labor market drawing “marginally attached” individuals from outside the labor force. Indeed, there was a 96,000 decline in those workers.

Earlier in the week, the BLS announced JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) data for January. There isn’t much to report here as the job openings changed little at 8.9 million, the number of hires and total separations were little changed at 5.7 million and 5.3 million, respectively.

As has been the case for the last couple of years, the number of job openings remains higher than the number of unemployed persons.

Also earlier in the week the BLS announced that productivity increased 3.2% in the 4th quarter with output rising 3.5% and hours of work rising 0.3%.

The bottom line is that the labor market continues its surprisingly (to some) strong performance, once again proving stronger than many had expected. This strength makes it difficult to justify any interest rate cuts soon, particularly given the recent inflation spike.

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