Stifel Maintains on InterMune

In a report published Friday, Stifel analyst Stephen Willey maintained Buy on InterMune (NASDAQ: ITMN), raising its price target from $20.00 to $23.00.

According to the report, ITMN pre-announced a 4Q13 Esbriet beat and provided what appears to be fairly conservative FY14 Esbriet sales guidance ($115M-135M). Analysts continue to like the risk/reward for ITMN as it remains a top speculative idea for FY14. “We've adjusted our model to include peak U.S. Esbriet sales of approximately $900M – an estimate that is based on some fairly conservative pricing ($65K/year at launch) and peak penetration (20-25%) estimates,” the report noted. “We continue to assign a high probability of success to a positive ASCEND outcome but still view P3 nintedanib data as a bit of a wildcard limiting visibility into our model (we don't think being potentially relegated to a second-line therapy is good thing in an indication where disease progression remains poorly defined). Our FY14/forward-year Esbriet estimates have decreased marginally.“

Some risks to the target price include regulatory, commercialization, intellectual property and development risks.

ITMN closed Thursday at $16.57 with shares trading up at 9.52 percent.