Singapore's August Global Partners Invests In Gene Solutions

Investing.com -- BTIG starts on Hims Hers Health Inc (NYSE:HIMS) with a "buy" rating and a price target of $35 given the company’s disruptive direct-to-consumer healthcare model. Brokerage highlighted HIMS' strong growth, innovative technology, and wide-ranging service offerings.

HIMS, which serves over 2 million members, reported a 44% year-over-year membership increase in Q3 2024. The subscription-based platform addresses a variety of health needs, including obesity, sexual health, mental health, and dermatology.

“We like how HIMS services a wide range of members including patients that are 65+, those with incomes below $50,000 per year, and a wide range of age, income, and ethnicity profiles,” analyst added.

“US labor markets are very healthy, disposable incomes seem high, the cost of HIMS' services in many cases are lower than copays or coinsurance, and many lifestyle related categories that HIMS supports typically are not covered by insurance.”

A significant growth driver for HIMS is its focus on obesity management, particularly through the use of compounded GLP-1 medications such as Semaglutide. These personalized treatments, often combined with vitamins or tailored dosages, aim to enhance efficacy and minimize side effects. BTIG noted the immense potential in this market, given that over 70% of Americans are either overweight or obese.

Trading at a current EV/EBITDA multiple of 16.2x on 2026 estimates, BTIG sees upside potential, assigning a valuation multiple of 22.8x to derive the $35 price target.

Investing.com - Novo Nordisk (CSE:NOVOb) remains the "most exciting growth story" in the European pharmaceutical sector and is in pole position to benefit from strong near-term demand for new weight-loss drugs, according to analysts at UBS.

In a note to clients raising their rating of the Danish group's stock to "buy" from "neutral", the analysts led by Jo Walton argued that sales of so-called GLP-1 class of medications for weight loss and related conditions will see a "positive inflection" in the first quarter of 2025.

"We expect a pick up in demand [...], in-line with seasonal demand for other weight loss products," the analysts wrote.

Novo has been boosted by soaring sales for its Wegovy offering, which has helped the company carve out a portion of the lucrative market for weight-loss medicines along with Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY)'s rival treatment Zepbound, also known as Mounjaro. Some analysts have forecast that the market for these drugs could be worth roughly $150 billion globally per year early in the next decade.

Meanwhile, Wegovy's success turned Novo into Europe's most valuable firm by market capitalization, valued at one point at more than $460 billion. However, the need to maintain this early advantage in the weight-loss drug market has placed heavy pressure on Novo to roll out next-generation treatments to replace Wegovy.

Shares in Novo slumped in December after trials of Novo's latest candidate to succeed Wegovy, CagriSema, showed it helped patients reduce their weight by 22.7% -- below Novo's expected target of 25%. Following the announcement, the stock tumbled to its lowest level since August 2023, wiping out as much as $125 billion in value.

Yet the UBS analysts said this sell-off was "overdone", adding that the stock remains an "attractive entry point into a pure-play for the most attractive growth area in pharma."

"The CagriSema [...] data in obesity was undoubtedly disappointing but it is still a higher efficacy treatment that could still show differentiation in type-2 diabetes [...]," the analysts wrote.