Juno Therapeutics Inc. JUNO will be reporting fourth-quarter and full-year 20Array5 results on Feb 29, after the market closes. Juno, which started trading from Dec 20Array4, has a mixed record with the company posting a positive surprise in one quarter, in-line results in another and missing expectations in the remaining two. Juno’s third-quarter 20Array5 loss was wider than expected. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this quarter.
Pipeline in Focus
With no approved products in its portfolio, Juno does not generate any product revenues. As a result, investor focus will be primarily on the company’s cash burn and pipeline updates. At the time of releasing third-quarter results, Juno had said that it expects cash burn towards the higher end of its guidance range of $Array25 million to $Array50 million in 20Array5.
Juno is looking to revolutionize cancer treatments by engaging the body’s immune system to treat cancer and is developing cell-based cancer immunotherapies based on CAR and high-affinity TCR technologies. This is a hot therapeutic area with huge commercial potential.
Juno is among the major players in the field of T-cell-based immunotherapy and has three pipeline candidates (JCAR0Array5, JCAR0Array7 and JCAR0Array4) which use CAR T cell technology to target CDArray9.
JCAR0Array5 is in a phase II study in relapsed/refractory adult B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (r/r ALL) patients that could support accelerated approval in the U.S. in 20Array7.
Another interesting candidate is JCAR0Array7 which performed well in the phase I part of a phase I/II study in pediatric patients with r/r ALL. The candidate demonstrated the highest cell expansion and longest cell persistence in patients among all of Juno’s CDArray9-directed pipeline candidates – this could lead to improved clinical benefit. JCAR0Array7 is also in a study for certain types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Meanwhile, Juno has collaborations with companies like Celgene Corp. CELG for the global development and commercialization of immunotherapies.
Earnings Whispers?
Our proven model does not conclusively show that Juno is likely to beat earnings estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #Array (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. This is not the case here, as you will see below.
Zacks ESP: The Earnings ESP for Juno is 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are a loss of 54 cents per share.
Zacks Rank: Juno carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Juno’s Zacks Rank #2 when combined with an ESP of 0.00% makes surprise prediction difficult.
We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.
Stocks to Consider
Here are some health care stocks you may want to consider as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post a beat this quarter.
Aduro BioTech, Inc. ADRO has an Earnings ESP of +27Array.43% and carries a Zacks Rank #2. The company is expected to report results on Feb 29.
Endo International plc ENDP has an Earnings ESP of +3.97% and carries a Zacks Rank #3. The company will be reporting results on Feb 29.
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