While Fools should generally take the opinion of Wall Street with a grain of salt, it's not a bad idea to take a closer look at particularly stock-shaking upgrades and downgrades -- just in case their reasoning behind the call makes sense.
What: Shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA 0.69%) opened slightly up on Wednesday after Deutsche Bank initiated coverage on the generic drug giant with a Buy rating.
So what: Along with the bullish call, analyst Gregg Gilbert planted a price target of $63 on the stock, representing about 15% worth of upside to Tuesday's close. So while contrarian traders might be turned off by Teva's sharp year-to-date price strength, Gilbert's call could reflect a sense on Wall Street its growth prospects still aren't fully baked into the valuation.
Now what: According to Deutsche, Teva's risk/reward trade-off is rather attractive at this point. "While the potential cliff for Copaxone looms and the generics business has not been without challenges, we like the combination of valuation, attractive dividend yield (similar to Big Pharma), and the potential for greater focus on strategic initiatives that increase shareholder value under new CEO Erez Vigodman," said Gilbert. "We see the recent hire of industry veteran Siggi Olafsson to run global generics and the simplification of the management structure as positive steps, and we sense that investors are skeptical about cost savings initiatives, the entire branded product pipeline, and Teva's ability/desire to do deals." When you couple that upbeat outlook with Teva's still-attractive forward P/E of 11, it's tough to disagree with Deutsche's bullishness.
