One of the first things I do each morning is look to see which shares have risen and fallen the most when the markets opened. I know, it’s sad, but it can throw up unexpected possibilities for further research. Here’s a look at three of today’s winners.
Soaring pharmaceutical
Indivior (LSE: INDV) shares are up 15% to 345p after the company announced a positive result from phase 3 clinical trials of its RBP-6000 buprenorphine drug candidate for treating people addicted to opioids. The drug, which the firm described as possibly life-transforming, should hopefully now get the nod from the US Food and Drug Administration for further trials — and Indivior suggests it could be on the market as early as Q4 2017.
With the shares at record highs, have investors missed the boat? I don’t think so. We’re still only looking at a P/E multiple of 16. And while that’s a little above the FTSE 100‘s long-term average, I think it’s low for a pharmaceuticals researcher with such a promising prospect in its hands — and Indivior is nicely profitable, unlike some smaller researchers who are burning cash.
Misuse of drugs like heroin, morphine and prescription painkillers is being increasingly seen as a problem that needs to be addressed, and if this stuff fulfils its early hopes it could end up making Indivior shares look super-cheap today.
Profit from housing?
If housebuilders are in the dumps, that shouldn’t affect estate agents and property service companies, should it? That’s what investors in Savills (LSE: SVS) are presumably thinking, as the shares have put on 7% today to 748p. Savills shares were hit hard by Brexit fallout, but with today’s rise they’ve recovered a good bit of the loss and are now only 4% down since the day.
The latest boost came from an upgrade by Citigroup, from neutral to buy, based on Savills’ recent upbeat first-half figures. I agree. Savills only gets about 10% of its annual turnover from the EU, so there seems to be little Brexit danger, and with the shares having slipped over the past year they’re now valued at under 12 times forecast earnings, with dividend yields approaching 4%.
Net debt is low and Savills’ full-year expectations remain unchanged, so those forecasts should be close to the mark. The shares look cheap to me.
Strength in defence
The aerospace and defence sector has faced a few years of pressure, and that’s helped push Cobham (LSE: COB) shares down 43% since February 2015, including a big drop in April after the firm issued a profit warning. But today’s news of the arrival of a new chief executive in the shape of Laird boss David Lockwood, to replace the incumbent Bob Murphy, has cheered investors — and the share price is up 3.5% to 166p.
I’ve always been fairly bullish about the long-term prospects for the sector, though I think Cobham has needed a bit of a kick in the pants to shake it up for a while. This new appointment could be what the doctor ordered, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few radical changes when Mr Lockwood takes the helm — such transitions are often a trigger for a clean review of a business and the shedding of unnecessary costs.
We could see more hardship and perhaps a bit of belt-tightening before growth returns, but I’m cautiously optimistic.