Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO) shares soared 14.3% in the last trading session to close at $33.83. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 1.4% gain over the past four weeks.
Agios Pharmaceuticals’ stock rallied after the company announced its intention to seek accelerated approval for its lead drug, mitapivat, for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD), following a pre-supplemental new drug application (sNDA) meeting with the FDA. As per the discussion with the FDA, Agios submitted its proposed confirmatory clinical study design for review. The company plans to submit the sNDA for mitapivat in SCD in the coming months and is closely engaged with the FDA to align on the requirements for the confirmatory study needed to support accelerated approval.
This biopharmaceutical company is expected to post quarterly loss of $1.82 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -17.4%. Revenues are expected to be $13.99 million, up 60.2% from the year-ago quarter.
Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.
For Agios Pharmaceuticals, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised marginally higher over the last 30 days to the current level. And a positive trend in earnings estimate revision usually translates into price appreciation. So, make sure to keep an eye on AGIO going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.
The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
Agios Pharmaceuticals is a member of the Zacks Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry. One other stock in the same industry, Puma Biotech (PBYI), finished the last trading session 4.2% higher at $6.39. PBYI has returned -4.5% over the past month.
Puma Biotech's consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has changed -230% over the past month to -$0.01. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of -110%. Puma Biotech currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).