Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE: TEVA) is Down 23.22% for the YTD

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited is currently trading at $50.40 per share, up 0.38% or $0.19. The stock is down 23.22% for the year after opening 2016 at around $65 per share. At its current price, the company has a market capitalisation of $46.03 billion and a price/earnings ratio of 33.64. The 52-week low range on this stock is $48.01 on the low end, and $66.55 on the high end. The 1-year target estimate price for the stock is $68.77 per share. If we turn our attention to the earnings and estimated earnings over the past 4 financial quarters, we see a close correlation between actual results and estimates. In Q2 2016 the actual earnings came in at $1.25 per share with estimated earnings of $1.20 per share. In Q1 2016 actual earnings were reported at $1.20 per share with estimated earnings at $1.17 per share. In Q4 2015 actual earnings were $1.28 and estimated earnings were $1.29. In Q3 2015, actual earnings were reported at $1.35 and estimated earnings at $1.28.

Revenues and earnings have also shown some interesting trends since 2013. In 2015, revenues were reported at $19.65 billion while earnings came in at $1.59 billion. In 2014, revenues of $20.27 billion were reported with earnings of $3.06 billion. In 2013, revenues of $20.31 billion were reported with earnings of $1.27 billion. In terms of recommendation trends, the vast majority of analysts in September rate the stock as either a strong buy or a buy option with a minority of analysts favouring a hold option. Much the same has held true since June of this year. If we look at the stock’s recommendation rating, it is currently rated at 1.9 on a scale of 1.0 (strong buy) to 5.0 (sell).

News from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited 

The last couple of upgrades/downgrades for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited indicate a mixed bag. On 18 July, HSBC securities upgraded the stock to a buy from a hold. On 15 July Goldman downgraded the stock to a neutral from a buy rating. On 4 May 2016, Credit Suisse issued a neutral rating on the stock, while on 19 February, Wells Fargo rated Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited as an outperform stock.

On Friday, 9 September, Teva issued a public update of several items on its product line. One of the new products that Teva has launched (and is awaiting approval on) is a competitor to Mylan’s EpiPen product. There is tremendous rancour within pharmaceutical companies, especially since Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is opposed to the high prices of emergency allergy treatment vis-a-vis the EpiPen. RBC Capital Markets are not overly convinced with the pharmaceutical company’s updates and the outlook for the pharmaceutical sector overall.

Teva is trying hard to get FDA approval for a generic version of the Mylan EpiPen device. And the reason why Teva is pushing so hard in this market is the cost of the portable allergic reaction inhibitor. Teva has been promising to release its generic version at half the price of Mylan’s EpiPen. But the FDA has refused to give the green light on the generic portable allergic reaction inhibitor owing to dosage-related concerns. This is precisely why the stock moved lower on Friday, and the short-term outlook remains bleak.