Search This Blog

Friday, February 1, 2019

Baxter price target raised to $80 from $72 at Piper Jaffray

Piper Jaffray analyst Matt O’Brien raised his price target for Baxter International to $80 after the company’s Q4 results topped expectations on both the top- and bottom-lines. The primary drivers of the revenue beat in the quarter were the company’s Renal Care, Pharma, Advanced Surgery and Acute Therapies, O’Brien tells investors in a research note. Further, he believes Baxter’s domestic Medication Delivery and Nutrition businesses stabilized during the quarter “with progress made towards restoring demand to pre-hurricane levels.” The analyst remains constructive on the stock and reiterates an Overweight rating.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857405

Cigna sees FY19 adjusted EPS $16.00-$16.50, consensus $16.75

Sees FY19 adjusted revenue $131.5B-$, consensus $133.37B.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857425

Zimmer Biomet sees FY19 adj. EPS $7.70-$7.90, consensus $7.92B

https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857430

Cooper Cos. upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Stephens

Stephens analyst Chris Cooley upgraded Cooper Companies to Overweight and raised his price target to $305 from $270. The analyst believes that the company is positioned to boost its earnings guidance, citing a stronger growth of its single-use daily SiH contact lens sales, above-forecast Paragard sales, and more modest FX-related headwinds than previously anticipated. Fooley adds that the current investor sentiment is “mixed at best”, which could lead to valuation lift in the near term.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857471

Tilly’s declares one-time, special cash dividend of $1.00 per share

Tilly’s announced that its Board of Directors has declared a special cash dividend of $1.00 per share, or approximately $29.5M in the aggregate, on the company’s outstanding Class A and Class B common stock. This one-time, special dividend is payable on February 27 to stockholders of record at the close of business on February 15.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857481

Merck sees FY19 adjusted EPS $4.57-$4.72, consensus $4.69

https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2857503

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Medical cannabis relieves symptoms in children with autism

In a new study of patients with autism who are 18 years old and under, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Soroka University Medical Center report that cannabis as a treatment for autism spectrum disorders appears to be a well-tolerated, safe and effective option to relieve symptoms including seizures, tics, depression, restlessness, and rage attacks.
In the study published in Scientific Reports, “Overall, more than 80 percent of the parents reported significant or moderate improvement in their child,” according to Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider, of the BGU-Soroka Clinical Cannabis Research Institute.
Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an extensive developmental disorder that is expressed in almost all dimensions of the child’s development. It is now common to refer to this disorder as a wide range of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) in which there are various manifestations and symptoms.
According to BGU’s Dr. Gal Meiri of the Negev Autism Center, “We analyzed the data prospectively collected as part of the program of 188 ASD patients treated with between 2015 and 2017. The treatment in majority of the patients was based on cannabis oil containing 30 percent cannabidiol oil (CBD) and 1.5 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Symptoms, patient global assessment and side effects at six months were primary outcomes of interest and were assessed by structured questionnaires.”
Overall, after six months of treatment, 30 percent of patients reported a significant improvement, 53.7 percent reported moderate improvement, and only 15 percent had slight or no change.
Quality of life, mood and ability to perform activities of daily living were assessed prior to treatment and at six months. Good quality of life was reported by 31.3 percent of patients prior to treatment initiation. At six months, good quality of life more than doubled to 66.8 percent. Positive mood was reported as 42 percent before treatment and 63.5 after six months.
The ability to dress and shower independently improved significantly from cannabis treatment. Only a quarter (26.4 percent) reported no difficulty prior to the treatment while 42.9 percent improved their ability to dress and shower independently at six months.
Cannabis oil medication also significantly improved sleep and concentration. Good sleep and concentration were reported by 3.3 percent and zero percent respectively at the outset vs. 24.7 percent and 14 percent during an active treatment.
“While this study suggest that cannabis treatment is safe and can improve ASD symptoms and improve ASD patients’ , we believe that -controlled trials are crucial for a better understanding of the cannabis effect on ASD ,” says Dr. Victor Novack, of the BGU-Soroka Clinical Cannabis Research Institute.

Explore further