Shares of mid-cap biotech company Amylyx rose 60% in a single day. Is it still too late to buy them?
Amylyx Pharmaceuticals' stock soared on the back of positive clinical trial results / Photo: Unsplash/Julia Koblitz
Shares of mid-cap biotech company Amylyx Pharmaceuticals soared nearly 64% on the Nasdaq on August 18—reaching their highest level since February 2023. The company announced that its experimental drug, which, like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, targets the GLP-1 receptor, met all clinical trial endpoints. This paves the way for a new therapy that currently has no equivalents on the market. Since the beginning of the year, Amylyx’s stock price has soared 190%, but Wall Street believes it could rise another 20%.
Details
Amylyx shares rose nearly 64% during trading on August 18, reaching $35.1. This is the highest level since February 2023. In premarket trading on August 19, the stock rose another 4%.
In the final phase of clinical trials, the experimental GLP-1 drug Avexitide met the goals agreed upon with the FDA, the industry regulator, Amylyx announced on August 18. The pharmaceutical company studied Avexitide in patients with post-bariatric hypoglycemia —a sharp drop in blood sugar levels in patients following bariatric surgery. This condition can lead to loss of consciousness, seizures, and sometimes disability, the company states. Despite this, there are currently no FDA-approved treatments for it, it notes.
Now—following the receipt of new clinical data—the biotech company “is urgently preparing to submit an application to the FDA for the drug’s approval,” said its medical director, Kamil L. Bedrosian (her comments are quoted in the company’s press release). If the application is approved, the drug will go on sale as early as 2027.
What Analysts Are Saying
Since the beginning of the year, Amylyx's stock price has soared by more than 190% (including Tuesday's rise).
Following the release of new clinical data, two Wall Street analysts raised their price targets for the company’s stock while maintaining their “buy” recommendations, according to Yahoo Finance. Investment bank HC Wainwright & Co raised its target by nearly 62%, to $55 (representing 57% upside potential), while Baird raised its target by nearly 86%, to $52 (representing nearly 49% upside potential).
In total, Amylyx shares have 11 "buy" ratings from analysts and one "hold" rating. The average price target is $42.2, which is 20% higher than the last closing price.
