Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Pain Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: PTIE), Animal Health International, Inc. (Nasdaq: AHII), Companhia Paranaense de Energia (NYSE: ELP), Internap Network Services Corp. (Nasdaq: INAP) and Buckeye Partners, L.P. (NYSE: BPL).
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Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:
Pain Therapeutics Feels the Hurt
Pain Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: PTIE) is focused on the development of novel treatments for the management of pain and other therapeutic indications. Lead pipeline candidate, Remoxy, an abuse-deterrent version of pain drug oxycodone, should have significant commercial opportunity upon approval due to its ability to reduce the potential of drug abuse / misuse.
While we believe that Remoxy will see significant demand once launched, we are concerned that the candidate may not receive final approval at the upcoming FDA action date of December 10. Remoxy received a mixed response from an FDA advisory panel recently - we fear that the FDA might require the company to conduct additional studies to establish its abuse-deterrent qualities.
Animal Health's Nice Upside
Animal Health International, Inc. (Nasdaq: AHII), based in Dallas/Fort Worth Texas, is a leading distributor of animal health products in the U.S., focused on both the production animal and companion animal health product segments of the market. AHII reported lower than expected 1Q09 net income of $0.3M, or EPS of $0.01.
Management cited constrained production animal customer sales, as a result of volatile commodity prices during the quarter, coupled with lower sales in the companion animal business associated with the general downturn in the economy as the main drivers. We have revised our price target to reflect a more conservative medium term outlook, however believe downside risk is limited at current levels and retain a Buy rating.
COPEL a Brazilian Utility Play
We are keeping our Buy recommendation on Companhia Paranaense de Energia or COPEL (NYSE: ELP), a fully integrated electric utility operating in Brazil. The company is engaged in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity to more than three million customers in the southern state of Paraná.
The company’s second quarter results were as expected. Net revenue reached R$1,387.4 million (US$835.8 million) from R$1,355.0 million in the same quarter of 2007. During the quarter total power consumption billed by COPEL grew 5.8%. The outlook for the following quarters remains reasonably positive, mainly considering the growing demand for electricity in Brazil in spite of the difficult business environment around the world.
Internap Taking a Snooze
Being a small player in a competitive industry, Internap Network Services Corporation (Nasdaq: INAP) has a relatively low revenue growth rate. Although the company has been gaining traction in its data colocation services, it is witnessing softness in its content delivery network (CDN) business.
Much of this has been caused by the weakening economy, which has forced INAP to trim its 2008 guidance twice. Though the company has been making important upgrades to its CDN product, there has been a lackluster performance in the segment in the last few quarters.
Buckeye Partners Retains a Buy
We are maintaining our Buy recommendation on Emmaus, Pennsylvania-based Buckeye Partners, L.P. (NYSE: BPL), a master limited partnership (MLP) and one of the largest independent common carriers of refined petroleum products in the U.S in terms of volume delivered, with approximately 5,400 miles of pipelines, located mostly in the Northeast and the Midwest.
The weakening economy, falling commodity prices and tight credit have led to dramatic slides across equity markets. BPL has fallen 25% from mid-'08 and now has a distribution yield that is trading more than 100 basis points above historical ranges.
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