Citigroup and I Are Aligned on These 3 Mid-Cap Biopharma Stocks
These names have attractive risk/reward profiles in an overbought market.
You've reached your free article limit
You've read 0 of 1 free Pro articles.
Early this week, Citigroup initiated coverage with a Buy rating on several mid-cap biopharma names. These included Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS), Alnylam (ALNY), BioMarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN), Ascendis Pharma (ASND), and Cytokinetics (CYTK).
Today, I will highlight three of these names whose risk/reward profiles seem attractive within an overbought market and that I hold within my portfolio via covered call positions.
BioMarin Pharmaceutical
I have built up a solid position in BioMarin Pharmaceutical in recent quarters. The company’s purchase of Amicus Therapeutics (FOLD), which I owned at the time, late in 2025, was a smart strategic acquisition that added a couple of attractive compounds to BioMarin’s product portfolio at a reasonable price.
The stock is changing hands at substantially below most analyst firms’ price targets and trades at a more than reasonable 11 times forward earnings. The company also just disclosed some encouraging late-stage trial results as it continues to expand the footprint for one of its core drugs.
Cytokinetics
I also own a good chunk of Cytokinetics. Some of this position will expire in the money come the next option expiration on June 18. I will be looking for any dip in the overall market to reaccumulate shares.
Cytokinetics recent rollout of recently approved MYQORZO (aficamten) for the treatment symptomatic obstructive HCM (oHCM) appears to be seeing strong initial demand and is expected to achieve blockbuster status in 2029. The company recently bolstered its cash balance to roughly $1.8 billion with a recent capital raise.
Several analyst firms, including Wells Fargo, JP Morgan and Stifel Nicolaus, boosted their price targets on stock this month following Q1 results.
Ionis Pharmaceuticals
Another mid-cap biopharma name I like is Ionis Pharmaceuticals. The stock has flatlined over the last six months as the shares consolidated some large gains up to November.
The company has a blockbuster in the making with Tryngolza (olezarsen). This is a once monthly, subcutaneously injected ligand-conjugated antisense therapy as an adjunct to diet to reduce triglycerides in adults with familial chylomicronemia syndrome or FCS. It was the first FDA approved drug to treat this rare affliction.
Olezarsen should be approved to treat severe hypertriglyceridemia (sHTG) soon. Based on Phase 3 results, it could quickly become the standard of care for this indication. Management doubled its estimated peak sales for olezarsen to $2 billion late in 2025. It then boosted that projection to $3 billion after posting Q1 numbers in late April.
Analyst firms project nearly $900 million in sales in 2026 from Ionis’ product portfolio after management boosted guidance significantly following first quarter results. Revenue is projected to accelerate rapidly up to just south of $3 billion in FY2029.
Ionis has an approximate market cap of $12.5 billion, an intriguing pipeline and a balance sheet with some $1.6 billion in cash and marketable securities. The company is on track to achieve breakeven cash flow in 2028 and should rapidly become increasingly profitable after that milestone.
At the time of publication, Jensen was long BMRN, CYTK and IONS.
