Jefferies lowers 2021 earnings by .01

Yeah, I was referring to our pals at Jefferies. Needless to say, the analyst community is as confused as the rest of us with exactly what IS going on.

Its The WAY say our friendly accoyltes of The First Order whom are forever devoted to never questioning the status quo.

Equities Analysts Issue Forecasts for OPKO Health, Inc.'s Q2 2021 Earnings (NASDAQ:OPK)

MONDAY, MAY 3, 2021 | MARKETBEAT

OPKO Health logo

OPKO Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPK) - Barrington Research reduced their Q2 2021 earnings estimates for shares of OPKO Health in a note issued to investors on Thursday, April 29th. Barrington Research analyst M. Petusky now forecasts that the biotechnology company will earn $0.02 per share for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $0.04. Barrington Research currently has a "Outperform" rating and a $8.00 target price on the stock. Barrington Research also issued estimates for OPKO Health's Q3 2021 earnings at $0.02 EPS, FY2021 earnings at $0.23 EPS (I'm sure this is wrong), Q2 2022 earnings at $0.05 EPS, Q4 2022 earnings at $0.05 EPS and FY2022 earnings at $0.18 EPS. OPKO Health (NASDAQ:OPK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 28th. The biotechnology company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the Zacks' consensus estimate of $0.05. OPKO Health had a negative return on equity of 2.61% and a negative net margin of 9.79%.

This will surely make you sick then: looks like scientists are saying we can’t ever reach herd immunity, which means we’re in an endemic - which means the show goes on for Opk/BRL!

15 days to flatten the curve...

just a few months to get the vaccines tested...

just a few more to get additional vaccines tested...

Just a few more months to get a "good" portion vaccinated (30, 40, 50, 60, 70%..nobody know).

Just a few more years to get long term follow up data on the vaccines...

Just a few more decades to fully understand how COVID works...

Meanwhile...we go back to work and have to be tested, receive a booster shot, or go on some antiviral treatment. FOREVER!

I posted some of this in the shout box, but I think it's important information to note in a thread so it won't go poof. 

Opko's quarterly EPS estimates, stuck as they are in the range of $0.00 to the throw-caution-to-the-wind optimistic $0.05 (Bagger, please I beg you, note that the numerator has barely been moving no matter what revenue windfalls we book....this is due to a potent cocktail of no operating leverage AND a giant share count)...yes, although we are in that single digit cents EPS rut, those digits are actually now being forecast by our esteemed analysts to go DOWN for the next couple quarters at least. Like being in an Iranian prison and having your daily food ration go from a slice of stale bread to even more stale crust only.

So there have been several recent UPGRADES and price target increases for both LH and DGX in recent weeks.

DGX
Jefferies went from $150 to $155 on 4/26 (by the way, the analyst is not Raycroft...why? is he a B team guy? is Opko so unique that the DGX analyst isn't qualified to assess its prospects?)
Baird went from $137 to $140 on 4/22, though remaining neutral
Wells Fargo went from $125 to $138 on 4/22
Nephron Research (not sure who they are) went from $140 to $146 on 4/22
And today, UBS upgraded from Neutral to Buy with a PT raise to $158 from $135

LH
Truist went from $300 to $320 yesterday, as posted in the SB
Jefferies (same analyst who covers DGX....not Raycroft but a gentleman named Brian Gil Tranquilut....why is he not covering Opko?) has raised price targets several times in the past few months: on 2/1 from $245 to $265; on 2/17 to $275; on 4/20 to $300; and yesterday he went to $310
Deutsche Bank went from $263 to $297 on 4/29
Credit Suisse, like Jefferies, has had multiple upgrades this year: from $244 on 2/2 to $280 on 4/29
Baird went from $300 to $315 on 4/29
Wells Fargo went from $275 to $300 on 4/29

So, what is going on here?
1. Opko is basically uncovered by the analyst community in the diagnostics sector. This is important: Jefferies is ONLY covering us because we paid them a bunch of money to distribute the convert deal. And the coverage there is NOT their diagnostics analyst.
2. Our competitors are not only back to growing their base businesses, they are growing their COVID testing footprint. DGX just yesterday put out this press release: Ginkgo Bioworks Teams with Quest Diagnostics to Provide COVID-19 Testing for K-12 Schools Nationwide.
3. They are also doing accretive tuck-in acquisitions. Like DGX, LH had important news yesterday: they acquired the Vectra Testing Business from Myriad Genetics.

And, finally, for Bagger's edification, LH appears ready to catch the trailing 12 month total return for Opko> As of yesterday's closes, here are the returns for each stock since 5/4/20:

DGX: 26%, with dividends
LH: 69.8%
OPK: 73.6%

You see, if you choose arbitrary points in time, you can make the numbers show anything. I'm ecstatic that Opko didn't plunge into bankruptcy in early 2020, as I'd feared and as the stock price seemed to be indicating at that time. But I've always viewed the return off the $1.21 low as a red herring: one could never have imagined a pandemic as a catalyst to return Opko from the realm of the walking dead. And, not only have I been nonplussed by Bagger's oft-stated assertion that the prescient Dr. Frost was authorizing the purchase of million in equipment in January of 2021 (perhaps there's proof of that...I'd certainly like to know), but we can see that even with a once in a lifetime event, the quarterly EPS has been pretty much stuck below $0.05 whether we do $300 million or $500 million in revenue. Is that not somewhat counterintuitive? We have NO operating leverage? Really?

In some ways, the most challenging days for Opko AS A STOCK (not a company) lie ahead. Base testing trends are clearly trailing those of our competitors, a troubling fact whose outcome will indeed be the true test for Dr Cohen. If milestone and royalty money do roll in over the next 12 months , how will those monies be accounted for and, more importantly, allocated to the business. Is there a succession plan? What will happen to the converts? Will BRLI be sold? ALL of these things, decisions by management, will affect the stock. The story is largely unwritten.

I know I get anecdotal too often but you are new brotherius and this just happened. The world's finest eye hospital is here in Miamiland and I need a lot of esoteric blood work to rule out something or other. The top doc who saw me told me to go to Quest for the lab work.
For the heck of it, I asked "what about BioReference?" He looked puzzled, said he had never heard of it and insisted on Quest. Adding insult to injury, you can almost see 4400 Biscayne from this hospital. And...it's a UM hospital piling on the insult. I guess it's proper that PF not take advantage of his position at UM to pump his lab. OTOH, maybe he can send someone over to distribute brochures in the doctors dining room? Just sayin'..... Ma

True, Jake, but they are not too interested in those mysterious denizens of the pipeline, especially short bowel syndrome, at an eye hospital. . Perhaps the itch cure as many go there for itchy eyes?