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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Harrison Hickman who wrote (20290)	5/9/1998 1:44:00 AM
From: Tommy D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

To the nea/yea sayers; Don't post often but from my perspective, unless people are day traders(whether short or long), relax. Bought stock in the fall, some more in Feb. and some warrants in early Feb. Up on the warrants, significantly and about even on the stock. Unless something unusual happens (positive or negative), won't consider selling until at least 12 months down the road. Found out the hard way that short term trading is very difficult unless you do it full time whether stock, options or indexes so leave the short term trading to Tonyt and be patient. I believe things will look positive by yearend (but I have been wrong before). TommyD

To: Harrison Hickman who wrote (20290)	5/9/1998 6:20:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Actually, Legg Mason thinks that LGND needs more publicity and a string on news announcements. They project an $0.08 profit for next year. Here's their overview: Investment Summary We are initiating coverage of Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc. with Buy/Speculative risk ratings. Ligand's impressive platform technologies, strategic alliances, and lower risk business model have created one of the strongest product pipelines in the small and mid-size pharmaceutical arena. We feel that 1998 and 1999 will be pivotal years for the company as its first products reach the market, and others enter and advance through clinical trials. A consistent flow of news is something that the company has lacked in the past, and will need in the future to re-focus attention on it. We believe Ligand's upcoming milestones, including product launches, NDA and IND filings, and clinical data, should dramatically improve the company's visibility. Our confidence in the company appears to be shared by many in the pharmaceutical industry as pharmaceutical companies currently own approximately 25% of Ligand's outstanding shares.

To: Harrison Hickman who wrote (20290)	5/9/1998 11:24:00 AM
From: tonyt	Respond to of 32384

Re:targets. Manson would get quite a chuckle if they ever read the targets on this board.

To: Harrison Hickman who wrote (20290)	5/9/1998 11:30:00 AM
From: tonyt	Respond to of 32384

The spin contines. Legg Manson initiates coverage of Ligand with a Buy/Speculative risk rating, and this gets spun into their 'highest' rating. Somehow I doubt that a speculative risk rating is their highest. What do you think?

To: Harrison Hickman who wrote (20290)	5/10/1998 7:40:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Harrison, Although finance isn't may area of expertise, brokerage ratings are not all that hard. To get some uniformity among the various brokerage houses, a 1-5 rating system is used. Services such as Zack's converts the rating of each brokerage firm into one of the five numbers. They use STRONG BUY, BUY, HOLD, SELL, and STRONG SELL to represent ratings 1-5. When a firm initiates coverage with a BUY, it's not clear if that translates into a 1 (the firm's highest rating) or a 2 (the firm's second highest). Thus, a BUY from H&Q would be a 2 because they use STRONG BUY to represent a 1. However, a BUY from Bear Stearns would be a 1 because that is their highest rating and a 2 is called ACCUMULATE (Legg Mason used OUTPERFORM to represent a 2). When the Legg Mason rec on LGND came out on Friday it was in a table of upgrades/downgrades/initiation of coverage. Legg Mason's only rec in the table was Ligand with a BUY, so the table did not really allow the reader to know if that was a 1 (Legg Mason's highest rating) or a 2 (if Legg Mason used STRONG BUY to represent a 1). When I obtained a copy of the report, I looked at the bottom of the report to see that a BUY is their highest rating which will show up as a STRONG BUY in Zacks. Ligand will have three STRONG BUYS (Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Legg Mason) and two BUYS (Hambrecht & Quist and Robertson Stephens). Zacks also gives their own rating which is based on upcoming earnings. Last time I looked, Zacks gave LGND a BUY, which is rather high for Biotechs. Investment Rating: B-Buy, O-Outperform, M-Market Performance, U- Underperform Risk Rating: 1-Low, 2-Average, 3-Above-Average, 4-Speculative Some firms throw in a Risk Rating. As most readers of this board know, Biotechs, in general, are risky and are not for everyone. The vast majority have no earnings and their future value is usually tied to clinical trials. Consequently, many firms limit their Biotech coverage, and virtually all Biotechs at Ligand's stage of development would be the riskiest. However, not all firms throw in a risk rating. Just to reiterate what was posted on Friday, Legg Mason initiated coverage on Ligand with a BUY which is their HIGHEST RATING (translates into a 1 or STRONG BUY on Zack's or other services like First Call). Of course, the three most recent reports on LGND indicate that they will make money next year, which certainly could change LGND's risk rating. For earnings, Legg Mason came in on the low end, $0.08. At the end of last year Bear Stearns projected a profit of $0.09. A month or two ago, H&Q came in with an eye popping $0.84 for 1999. Some people convert EPS into share price by multiplying by the growth rate. LGND's EPS growth has been projected in the 50% to 100% which of course would translate into $48 to $84 price, which I'm sure would make most LGND investors extremely happy next year.