Morgan Stanley has upped its rating for Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) to ‘overweight’ from ‘equal-weight’ after raising its target price in a note highlighting the generics firm’s “hidden operating leverage”.
The US investment bank’s analysts upped their target price for the FTSE 100-listed group to 2,660p a share from 2,200p previously.
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In the note to clients, the analysts said: “The profit contribution from the launch of gVascepa and gAdvair is not fully appreciated by the market, in our view.
“Our detailed analysis of the impact of these launches leads us to raise our base case 2022 EBIT by 15%, 12% above consensus.”
In mid-morning trading on Tuesday, Hikma shares were changing hands at 2,216p each, down 0.5% on Monday’s closing price.