By Carly Forster
MannKind Corporation (MNKD, Financial) announced its fourth quarter fiscal 2014 earnings report on Feb. 24 with results generally in line with expectations.
Highlights from the report include a loss of -$0.09 a share, up from a loss of -$0.16 the same quarter a year prior. For the full year, the company posted a loss of -$0.51 a share with no recorded revenue.
Towards to end of the fourth quarter, Sanofi paid MannKind $225 million to establish a licensing agreement in which Sanofi will be responsible for commercial, regulatory, and development activities relating to Afrezza, a rapid-acting inhaled insulin for adults with diabetes. Afrezza was approved by the FDA in June 2014.
"After achieving a number of significant milestones during 2014, we began the commercial production of Afrezza during the fourth quarter of the year," said Hakan Edstrom, MannKind's President and Chief Executive Officer. "With our flagship product, Afrezza, in the early stages of its commercial launch in the United States, we now enter a very exciting new phase for MannKind."
Piper Jaffray analyst Joshua Schimmer weighed in on MannKind on Feb. 25 following the company’s Q4 report, reiterated a Neutral rating on the stock with a $7 price target, according to SmarterAnalyst.
Schimmer noted, “Afrezza launch is underway by partner [Sanofi], and MNKD is now turning its attention to leveraging its TechnoSphere platform to expand its pipeline. We remain Neutral on shares as we track the Afrezza launch and await specifics as to which new programs it will now advance into the clinic.”
Overall, Schimmer has a 73% success rate recommending stocks and a +19.6% average return per recommendation.
Similarly, on Feb. 25, JMP Securities analyst Jason Butler maintained a Market Perform rating on MannKind, saying it's "too early to assess" Afrezza, developed in partnership with Sanofi.
Butler currently has an overall success rate of 80% recommending stocks and a +83.2% average return per recommendation.
On average, the top analyst consensus for MannKind on TipRanks is Hold.
