Lantheus Holdings At 52-Week High: What's Driving The Stock?

Share price of Lantheus Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LNTH) , based in North Billerica, scaled a new 52-week high of $17.85 on Jun 30, eventually closing a bit lower at $17.65. The company has witnessed a consistent rally in its share price and gained around 36.8% since the announcement of better-than-expected results for the first quarter of 2017 on May 2. Along with the strong fundamentals, the raised full-year 2017 guidance has bolstered investors’ confidence in the stock.

Average volume of shares traded over the last one year was remarkable at approximately 756.31K. The stock has a market cap of $658.61 million.

Comparison with Broader Industry

For the majority of the last three months, the company’s share price has considerably outperformed the Zacks categorized Medical - Products sub-industry. The stock has rallied 43.5% over this period, outshining the sub-industry’s rise of 9.8%. The company has also outperformed the S&P 500’s 2.9% gain.

Taking the stable stock performance into consideration, we expect Lantheus Holdings to scale higher in the coming quarters.

Estimate Revision Trend

This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company’s estimate revision trend for the current year is favorable. In the past 60 days, two estimates have moved up with no revision in the opposite direction. The magnitude of estimate revision increased around 14.8% to 93 cents per share. The company reported a stellar four-quarter positive average earnings surprise of 118.3% and an earnings surprise of 47.4% in the last reported first quarter of 2017.

Lantheus Holdings, Inc. Price and Consensus

Lantheus Holdings, Inc. Price and Consensus | Lantheus Holdings, Inc. Quote

Growth Catalysts

We are encouraged to note that Lantheus Medical Imaging, a subsidiary of Lantheus Holdings, has inked an agreement with GE Healthcare to support the universal development and commercialization of its flurpiridaz F-18 investigational PET radiopharmaceutical. The company also announced a new expanded contract with GE Healthcare that runs through 2020. Lantheus will supply TechneLite Xenon-133 and Gallium-67 at the earlier price promised under this agreement.

The company’s first-quarter 2017 performance was promising, drawing investors’ attention on the stock. Notably, in the last reported quarter, revenues were strong on the back of approximately 20% growth in worldwide sales of DEFINITY and around 8% growth in worldwide sales of TechneLite. The raised revenue guidance for the full year indicates that the bullishness is here to stay.

The market is also upbeat about the company’s announcement of joining the S&P SmallCap 600 GICS Health Care Supplies Sub-Industry Index. Lantheus has replaced Tidewater Inc. in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index which further highlights its steadily growing business.

Other Key Picks

Other top-ranked medical stocks are Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALGN) , Inogen, Inc. (NASDAQ:INGN) and Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXDX) . Notably, Inogen sports a Zacks Rank #1, while Align Technology and Accelerate Diagnostics carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Align Technology has an expected long-term adjusted earnings growth of almost 24.1%. The stock has added roughly 29.9% over the last three months.

Inogen has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 17.5%. The stock has gained around 24.4% over the last three months.

Accelerate Diagnostics has an expected long-term adjusted earnings growth of 30%. The stock has added roughly 9.8% over the last three months.

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