October 20, 2020 Events Best Ideas List
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MORNING CALL - October 20, 2020 Events Calendar of Upcoming Events Best Ideas List (BIL)/Upgrades/Downgrades/Initiations Graybug Vision, Inc (GRAY) Rating: OUTPERFORM, 12-Month Price Target: $41.00, Price: $15.90 Restoring Vibrant Vision to a Field of Gray; Initiating at OUTPERFORM and $41PT We consider Graybug Vision, Inc. (GRAY) an opportunity to invest in innovative long-acting therapies to treat chronic vision- threatening diseases. The Company’s proprietary technology creates a customized, sustained-release active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) delivered intravitreally with the goal of reducing dosing frequency from about 10 times per year to only one-to-three times per year; thereby, enhancing patient compliance, reducing healthcare burden and potentially delivering better clinical outcomes. The lead product candidate, GB-102 is a twice yearly intravitreal injection of sunitinib --a pan-VEGF inhibitor-- for the treatment of blinding eye diseases including wet age-related macular degeneration or wet AMD and diabetic macular edema or DME. The combination of sustained drug delivery and reducing injection frequency without the risk of inflammation places GB-102 in a competitive advantage. The current standard of care revolves around anti-VEGF-A therapies such as Eylea® (aflibercept; Regeneron), Lucentis® (ranibizumab; Genentech/Roche), Avastin® (bevacizumab; Genentech/ Roche), and recently approved Beovu® (brolucizumab; Novartis), all of which cause improved visual acuity in wet AMD but require frequent injections that reduce compliance and cause waning efficacy. The worldwide sales of anti-VEGF therapies were about $7.3 billion in 2019 (Evaluate, September 16, 2020). Although anti-VEGF-A intravitreal injections dominate the wet AMD market, the frequency of injections and follow-up visits continue to pose a substantial healthcare burden. By inhibiting all VEGF subtypes instead of just VEGF-A, GB-102 has the potential for more potent efficacy and the inclusion of PLGA microparticles reduces injection frequency to twice yearly. We project over $2 billion in GB-102/wet AMD annual sales in 2030 after an initial U.S. launch in 2024. In addition to developing a potential wet AMD blockbuster treatment, Graybug is building a clinical-stage pipeline to treat other blinding retinal diseases including diabetic retinopathy or DR and DME as well as front-of-the-eye diseases like glaucoma. Our $41 twelve-month price target includes our values for GB-102 for treatment of wet AMD (~$31/share) and DME (~$10/share). In our view, GB-102’s promising clinical profile and potential multi-billion dollar sales make Graybug an attractive investment. Key near-term catalysts: Topline results from the GB-102 Phase 2a trial in DME in H2:20 and topline results from the GB-102 Phase 2b ALTISSIMO study in wet AMD in H1:21. Corsair Gaming, Inc. (CRSR) Rating: OUTPERFORM, 12-Month Price Target: $25.00, Price: $20.10 Right Place at the Right Time; Initiating with an OUTPERFORM Rating, $25 PT The Wedbush View Wedbush Securities does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. Thus, investors should be aware that the firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decision. Please see pages 6–8 of this report for analyst certification and important disclosure information. www.wedbush.com Page 1 We initiate on shares of CRSR with an OUTPERFORM rating and a $25 price target. Corsair has a solid niche in what otherwise appears to be a commodity business. Unlike many of its larger competitors, Corsair is firmly focused on the gaming segment, with the vast majority of its sales coming from a small, but dedicated base of hard core gamers. We believe that Corsair’s future growth is likely to average 10% on the top line for the next several years, although we modeled more conservative annual top line growth. Because the drivers of this growth are the relatively high margin peripherals businesses (with performance memory modeled flat), we expect Corsair margins to expand, with its product development spending and G&A growing more slowly. Those assumptions result in earnings growth for the next three years. Using a sum of the parts analysis, we reach our $25 price target, which supports our view that 20x P/E on our FY:22E consolidated EPS is a fair price relative to Corsair’s peers, which are currently trading at premium valuations. Game streaming is a substantial opportunity for Corsair, and management should be complimented for its foresight in its timely acquisition of SCUF. Corsair’s high-end gaming controller brand, SCUF, positions Corsair to develop solutions for the budding (and likely burgeoning) market for game streaming. We envision game streaming services to expand the market for console and PC gamers by 6 – 10x over the next decade, with cloud-based delivery of games requiring only an Internet connection, a display and a controller. In our view, the opportunity for streaming is immense, with expansion of households with access to console and PC games likely to exceed 1 billion; should Corsair capture only 1% of this market, the company would be positioned to sell an incremental 10 million gaming controllers annually at prices likely to exceed $50 per device. Corsair assumed with its Elgato acquisition that the market for live streaming will grow dramatically in the future, and we agree. Elgato allows casters to seamlessly integrate various streams (as well as other video and music) while broadcasting live, and offers an elegant solution at a reasonable price. There are an estimated 6 million live streamers on YouTube and Twitch combined. We envision a world where this figure doubles every 3 – 5 years, with 24 – 50 million casters in the market for Corsair’s streaming solutions by the end of the decade. If Corsair is able to capture 5% market share, its sales in this category should grow by $500 million to $1 billion over the next 10 years. We have modeled sales growth of approximately $250 million in this category over the next three years, because our bias is that the creator market is growing much faster and Corsair’s solutions are likely to capture more than 5% market share. Focus Research FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS Zions Bancorporation (ZION) Rating: NEUTRAL, 12-Month Price Target: $38.00, Price: $30.22 Ongoing Margin Pressure to Remain as an Overhang Lower provision expense drove the earnings beat this quarter and management is feeling better about its credit outlook today vs. a few months ago. Meanwhile, core preprovision net revenue was relatively stable as it decreased $3 million Q/Q to $297 million (vs. our forecast of $292 million). ZION is facing ongoing margin pressure from the reinvestment of earnings assets. Plus, core loan growth (ex-PPP) is soft and not helping to offset margin pressure. PPP fees will increase in 2021 due to loan forgiveness as part of an offset to the core margin pressure; but that's temporary. Longer term, ZION has a real opportunity to accelerate growth as they acquired ~14,000 new customers through the PPP program and of the 33,000 existing customer who took PPP loans (~60% were deposit only customers). An aggressive calling effort is in place to retain these customers and expand existing relationships; but time will tell how successful they are. www.wedbush.com Page 2 Share buybacks could be a 1Q21 event. Management is very interested in buying back stock, but will wait at least one more quarter before doing so to ensure credit quality continues to hold-up and a more certain economic environment. Join us for a series of virtual NDRs and management calls in November TCF 11/2 - Virtual NDR AX 11/9 - 11/10 – Virtual NDR TCBI 11/12 – Conference Call PB 11/17 - Conference Call Please contact your Wedbush salesperson for details. HEALTHCARE United Therapeutics (UTHR) Rating: OUTPERFORM, 12-Month Price Target: $247.00, Price: $115.00 PTAB Decision Paves Way for TreT First-to-Market; Pivotal Data/Filing in Q1:21 United Therapeutics is a profitable commercial-stage pharmaceutical company with multiple therapeutics approved for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and pediatric neuroblastoma. On October 14, Liquidia Technologies (LQDA) announced that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decided to institute an inter partes review (IPR) for one of the two challenged patents owned by United Therapeutics (UTHR) pertaining to Tyvaso® - granted for U.S. Patent No. 9,604,901 (‘901), but denied for U.S. Patent No. 9,593,066 (‘066). As a result of the split decision, the earliest United’s market exclusivity for Tyvaso®, which naturally expires in 2028, could come to end is in 2022. Moreover, the upcoming PDUFA for Liquidia’s LIQ861 on November 24, 2020 is unlikely to receive approval prior to the completion of the 30-month stay on October 24, 2022. In our view, approval for LIQ861 in Q3:22 forms our base case scenario regarding the outcome of the ongoing litigation and a favorable result for TreT. Next: Topline results from the pivotal BREEZE study of TreT/PAH and U.S. regulatory filing in Q1:21. Aptinyx Inc. (APTX) Rating: OUTPERFORM, 12-Month Price Target: $8.00, Price: $3.73 Step Into Your Fear - Phase 2 NYX-783 Success In PTSD The Wedbush View: Remain Outperform rated on APTX. Our first take on top-line Phase 2 NYX-783 data is that the data appears positive, with a delineation between doses and a plan for advancement. Management plans to host a call on 10/20/20 at 8:30a ET to further discuss the results and expected strategy. For our part, we are most focused on better understanding the baseline characteristics, magnitude of effect on different subdomains and how the company is thinking about pivotal trial design.