After a Wild Week on Wall Street, Take Refuge in Four Rising Biotechs
It would be an understatement to say this has been an eventful week. Tuesday’s mid-term debacle for the incumbent party was followed by a big rally in the markets on Wednesday on hopes gridlock will produce a good result for equity holders in 2027. Oil also dropped by nearly 8% on Wednesday on hopes the election made a resolution in the conflict in the Middle East more likely. Reality returned to the markets on Thursday as worries increased markedly that the legislation at the state level could result in delays or cancellations for new AI data center projects. The Nasdaq fell over 1,400 points on the day.
But today I am going to strike an optimistic tone and highlight four of the biopharma names within my portfolio that did deliver good news. I will start with Neurocrine Biosciences ($NBIX). This mid-cap biopharma is one of the bigger covered-call holdings within my portfolio.
The company posted its third-quarter results on Monday, easily beating top- and bottom-line expectations and raised forward guidance. The drugmaker is seeing growth from all three of its Food and Drug Administration-approved products on the market. The year 2027 should see key Phase 3 readouts from two other promising candidates within its pipeline. A solid balance sheet and still reasonably valued despite this week’s rally at approximately 16-times forward earnings.
Next, PTC Therapeutics ($PTCT) reported its third-quarter numbers last week. Revenues doubled from the same period a year ago and the company is advancing a diverse portfolio that should see a BLA submission before the close of 2026. Management also boosted its fiscal 2026 net product sales range from $850 million to $950 million up to $960 million to $990 million. This week the company announced a $500 million buyback authorization which is roughly 9% of the outstanding float in the shares at current valuations.
Then we have mid-cap biopharma Jazz Pharmaceuticals ($JAZZ), a name I touched on briefly five weeks ago. Jazz is not experiencing the explosive revenue growth of the first two names on this list. The stock also trades under 10-times fiscal 2027 expected EPS. Jazz posted its quarterly numbers on Monday and sales rose nearly 10% on a year-over-year to $1.24 billion. This was $30 million north of the consensus. Management also boosted full year’s sales guidance a bit. Moving from a range of $4.6 billion to $4.75 billion to $4.775 billion to $4.85 billion.
Finally, I will end with Xeris Biopharma Holdings, Inc ($XERS), a small-cap name James “RevShark” DePorre has highlighted frequently over the past few years. The company crushed expectations with its Q3 numbers on Thursday. The company posted unadjusted profit on 44% revenue growth that delivered sales of just over $107 million. The consensus was looking for a breakeven quarter and just under $102 million in quarterly revenues. There was also some buyout speculation around this firm at the end of September.
At the time of publication, Jensen was long JAZZ, NBIX, PTCT & XERS
