Drug Stocks' Earnings To Watch On May 16: ADHD, MCRB & More

The Q1 earnings season is almost wrapping up with 90.2% (as of May 11) of the S&P 500 members having already reported results. Now how does the picture look like? While growth remained nonexistent, the results were not that bad with a number of companies coming out with positive surprises for both earnings as well as revenues.

However, 2016 earnings growth expectations have turned negative similar to what was seen last year. Will Hopes of Earnings Growth Materialize? As most of the remaining companies report Q1 results over the next coming days, things will become clearer.

With several pharma and major biotech companies having released their earnings results, Medical is one of the few sectors witnessing earnings and revenue growth in Q1. Our Q1 scorecard shows that 94.3% of the Medical sector has reported results with earnings growth of 7.8% and revenue growth of 9.8%. The blended beat stands at 64% (the percentage of companies that have beaten both EPS as well as revenue estimates).

Notably, the Medical sector is anticipated to be one of the seven sectors to record earnings growth (7.6%) in Q1, as per our Earnings Trends report.

Among drug stocks lined up to report on May 16, let’s take a sneak peek at five companies.

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, Alcobra Ltd. (NASDAQ:ADHD) is an emerging pharmaceutical company focused on the development of treatments for cognitive disorders including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and fragile X syndrome. Alcobra has been seen to consistently beat expectations with an average positive surprise of 21.53%. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% for the first quarter thereby making it difficult to predict a beat.

Editas Medicine Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) is one of the leading genome editing company developing a proprietary genome editing platform based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology. The company is looking to treat patients with genetically defined diseases by correcting their disease causing genes. This Cambridge, MA-based company, which started trading from Feb 2016, has a Zacks Rank #3 which when combined with an ESP of 0.00% makes a surprise prediction difficult.

Based in Waltham, MA, Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNDX) is a development-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of entinostat as a combination therapy in multiple cancer indications. Syndax started trading from March this year. The company’s Zacks Rank #3 with an ESP of 0.00% once again makes a surprise prediction difficult this quarter.

One of the leading microbiome therapeutics platform companies, Seres Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRB) is a development stage company focused on the development of a novel class of biological drugs designed to treat disease by restoring the function of a dysbiotic microbiome. This Cambridge, MA-based company, which started trading from Jun 2015, has delivered disappointing performances in both its reported quarters with the company missing estimates with a negative surprise of 19.11%. The company’s Zacks Rank #3 with an ESP of 0.00% makes a surprise prediction difficult this quarter.

Grand Prairie, TX-based Neos Therapeutics, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:NEOS) Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) increases the predictive power of the ESP. However, the company’s 0.00% ESP makes a surprise prediction difficult yet again. Neos is a pharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of products utilizing its proprietary modified-release drug delivery technology platforms. The company, which started trading from Jul 2015, reported a positive surprise of 22.97% last quarter.