On Friday, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) upgraded Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD)’ stock rating from Equal-weight to Overweight and increased the price target to $113 from the previous $87.
The upgrade comes after a reassessment of several aspects of Morgan Stanley’s model for Gilead. The firm highlighted that Gilead’s shares have seen a rise due to positive developments in its pipeline, particularly for Lenacapavir in HIV prevention and anito-cel in multiple myeloma.
Gilead’s stock performance in 2024 showed a 14% increase compared to the S&P 500’s 23%. Despite this, Morgan Stanley sees potential for further growth, citing possible upward revisions to estimates following the anticipated launch of Lenacapavir and advancements in the company’s next-generation HIV treatment strategy.
The analysts at Morgan Stanley pointed out that Gilead’s shares are currently trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of approximately 12x/11x based on the refreshed 2025/2026 earnings per share (EPS) estimates. They also forecasted revenue and EPS growth for Gilead from 2025 to 2033 at 4.1% and 7.3% respectively, which surpasses the biopharma peer group average growth rates of 1.8% for revenue and 4% for EPS. The peer group is trading at a median 2025 P/E of around 13x.
The new price target of $113 is derived from a discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis and suggests P/E ratios of about 15x for 2025 and 14.5x for 2026.
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