Shares of Amgen Inc.
AMGN,
gained 1.1% premarket on Tuesday after BMO Capital Markets analysts upgraded the stock to outperform, from market perform, citing the company’s “underappreciated” potential in the obesity drug market. The company is working on a once-monthly injection as well as a pill for patients with obesity. The developing pipeline “gives investors the opportunity to play in the obesity metabolic space without the same premium as peers,” BMO analyst Evan David Seigerman wrote in a research note Tuesday, adding that Amgen may be “the 2024 value obesity play.” Amgen shares have climbed less than 5% so far this year, while obesity-drug leaders Eli Lilly & Co.
LLY,
and Novo Nordisk
NVO,
have gained 58% and 46%, respectively. Amgen has also made progress on an interesting pipeline of assets in oncology and inflammation, the analysts wrote, and in October closed its acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics after securing clearance from antitrust regulators who had challenged the deal. The analysts raised their price target on Amgen shares to $326 from $286.
