A Hold recommendation has recently been issued to pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) by Zacks senior pharmaceutical industry analyst Jason Napodano, CFA. Here's what his latest update had to say about it:
'Sanofi-Aventis ADR, located in France, develops and manufactures pharmaceutical products, primarily for sale in the prescription drug market. The company, which has global operations, focuses on major therapeutic areas such as cardiovascular, central nervous system (CNS), oncology and internal medicine formulations.
'Combined, Sanofi-Aventis is the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world in terms of revenues. Valuation on the combined company is attractive, but we would like to see more visibility on some of the patent issues hanging over it before we recommend buying the shares.
'Based on a current price of approximately 60.43 ($42.61) per share, Sanofi-Aventis currently trades at a P/E (Price/Earnings) ratio of 12x 2007 EPS. We calculate the peer group average is approximately 13.8x 2007 EPS with roughly 7% estimated four-year growth.
'Meanwhile, the company provided an update on its pipeline candidates at the recently held R&D (Research & Development) day. We were encouraged to see that Sanofi has several candidates in advanced phases of clinical development in different therapeutic areas -- the company is targeting 31 potential submissions by the end of 2010.'
Read the full analyst report on SNY.
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