Hapoalim Reiterates Buy Rating for Nektar Therapeutics

Hapoalim Securities healthcare analyst Jon LeCroy maintains his Buy rating for shares of Nektar Therapeutics NKTR. Nektar's new cancer drug NKTR-102 is in trials right now, with results expected in mid-2010. "Dr. Verschraegen, who discussed the data, stated that the results were at the high-end of what would be expected in an ovarian cancer trial, failing to consider that the 102 study was essentially a fourth-line trial that would have been expected to show minimal response. We view the post ASCO weakness as an opportunity and think that breast cancer data could boost NKTR shares," LeCroy said. Hapoalim puts shares of Nektar at $16.00 a share, based on a sum-of-the-parts model. Nektar is currently trading at $11.36.