BioNTech Stock Has Been Hit Hard Since RFK Jr.'s Nomination. Why This Analyst Upgraded It. -- Barrons.com

By Mackenzie Tatananni

BioNTech stock has tumbled since President-elect Donald Trump tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, but one analyst now sees a buying opportunity.

Evercore ISI analyst Cory Kasimov upgraded the German drugmaker's stock to Outperform from In Line in a report Tuesday, raising his price target to $125 from $110. BioNTech was rising 5% to $107 on Tuesday.

Coming into Tuesday, the stock has fallen 8.6% to $101.87 since Nov. 13. Kennedy's nomination came just before markets closed that Thursday.

Kennedy, an outspoken vaccine skeptic, has taken aim at the Covid-19 shots developed during Trump's first administration. He has also peddled various conspiracy theories including claims that the virus was engineered to target Black and white people while sparing "Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese."

Other drug manufacturers declined in the days following the nomination. Pfizer and Moderna have declined 6.9% and 6.2% respectively, though Novavax rose 0.8% since Kennedy was nominated.

In the case of BioNTech, Kasimov argued that Comirnaty, the company's Covid-19 jab developed in partnership with Pfizer "is no longer the focus." While vaccine rates are close to steady state and generate an annuity-like $1.5 billion to $2 billion a year, oncology is "the key to its outlook," he added.

BioNTech stock jumped to $125.54 in September after another company, Summit Therapeutics, reported a late-stage trial success for a lung cancer drug candidate called Ivonescimab.

Just last week, BioNTech announced the $800 million acquisition of its Chinese partner Biotheus, giving it full control of BNT327, a bispecific antibody that targets the same cancer-promoting proteins as Ivonescimab.

Kasimov's note included nods to BNT327 as well as the iNeST and FixVac cancer vaccine platforms, which have shown promising early results. While BNT327 lagged behind competitors in preclinical trials, its clinical data shown to date have been "compelling," Kasimov wrote.

The analyst described the call to upgrade the stock as a combination of opportunism, value, and "an increasingly compelling fundamental outlook" around BioNTech's oncology pipeline.

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November 19, 2024 11:57 ET (16:57 GMT)

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