What’s in Store for Immune Design (IMDZ) in Q2 Earnings?

Immune Design Corp. IMDZ is scheduled to report second-quarter 2018 results after the market closes on Aug 1.

In the last reported quarter, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 3.45%. Immune Design has topped earnings estimates in all of the trailing four quarters, with an average beat of 15.87%.

Immune Design’s shares have lost 3.8% year to date, compared with the industry’s decline of 0.6%.

Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors at Play

Being a development-stage biopharmaceutical company, Immune Design has not generated any product revenues yet. It earns revenues from collaboration and licensing agreements, and product sales.

Investors remain focused on the company’s progress based on its pipeline candidates. Immune Design is developing multiple candidates using two discovery platforms — ZVex and GLAAS — for the treatment of various types of cancers. The company’s key pipeline candidates are CMB305 for solid tumor and G100 for merkel cell carcinoma (“MCC”).

CMB305 has been designed under a prime-boost approach, involving the sequential dosing of two complementary agents — LV305 and G305.

Currently, this candidate is being evaluated in soft tissue sarcoma patients both as monotherapy (phase I) and in combination with Roche Holding’s RHHBY Tecentriq (phase II). The company plans to initiate a pivotal phase III SYNOVATE trial studying CMB305 as monotherapy in synovial sarcoma patients. If the progression free survival endpoint is met, the company intends to file a Biologics License Application and seek approval for CMB305 for the treatment of synovial sarcoma.

Meanwhile, G100 is being evaluated in multiple clinical trials. In a completed phase I study, the candidate has been evaluated as a monotherapy with local radiation, in patients with MCC. G100 is also being studied in an ongoing investigator-sponsored trial, in patients suffering from sarcoma

It is also being developed as a monotherapy as well as a combination therapy in patients with follicular non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (“NHL”), in a randomized phase Ib/II study.

During the earnings call, we expect Immune Design to shed light on the progress of these ongoing trials.

What Our Model Indicates

Our proven model does not show an earnings beat for Immune Design this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both — a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) — to be able to beat estimates. However, that is not the case here as you will see below.

Earnings ESP: Immune Design has an Earnings ESP of -3.33%. This is because the Most Accurate Estimate is pegged at a loss of 31 cents and the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at a loss of 30 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Immune Design has a Zacks Rank #4, which decreases the predictive power of ESP. We also need to have a positive ESP to be confident about an earnings beat.

As it is, we caution against Sell-rated stocks (#4 or 5) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks That Warrant a Look

Here are some health care stocks that you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter.

Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PCRX has an Earnings ESP of +42.86% and currently carries a Zacks Rank #2. The company is scheduled to release second-quarter report on Aug 2.

Endo International plc ENDP has an Earnings ESP of +1.37% and currently carries a Zacks Rank #3. The company is scheduled to release second-quarter results on Aug 8.

Wall Street’s Next Amazon

Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius.

Click for details >>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.

Zacks Investment Research