The firm's stomach cancer treatment met its main goal in a late-stage study
The shares of biotech name Deciphera Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DCPH) have more than doubled this morning after the durgmaker announced that its lead treatment, ripretinib, met its main goal during a late-stage study in patients with stomach cancer. The stock has shot up 100% at $39.95, trading right back near its June 2018 record highs, and set for its best day ever.
Just yesterday, DCPH took a massive slide, bottoming out at seven-month lows, and was struggling right below the year-to-date breakeven. point. This plummet comes just days after the stock tried to rally off a second-quarter earnings win earlier this month, only to be met with resistance at its 200-day moving average. Today, however, the equity is set to close atop this trendline, with only one other close north of here notched since last October.
Analysts have had high hopes for Deciphera even before today's surge, made evident by its consensus 12-month target price of $45.50, which still holds a slight premium to the stock's current perch. What's more, all but one analyst has doled out a "strong buy" rating to the equity, with the holdout calling it a "strong sell." In fact, last month Deutsche Bank called the stock's pop, initiating coverage with a $42 price target and a "buy" rating.
While short interest has been declining, down 14.3% in the last two reporting periods, the 3.09 million shares sold short still represents a healthy 20.5% of the stock's available float. Considering that it would still take over two weeks to buy back all these bearish bets at DCPH's average pace of trading, short covering tailwinds could still occur.