Is Gilead Sciences an Acquisition Target?

Gilead Sciences' (NASDAQ: GILD) latest earnings report and full-year outlook didn't exactly inspire confidence among investors last week. The biotech heavyweight told the investing community a week ago today that its top line will likely dip yet again this year thanks to falling hep C drug sales and the slower-than-expected commercialization of its anti-cancer cell therapy Yescarta.

Wall Street, for its part, is even less optimistic about the big biotech's near-term prospects. The average analyst estimate has the biotech's annual sales declining for the next two full years. That's a surprising take to be sure, given the strong possibility that Gilead's blockbuster-in-waiting, filgotinib, will likely hit the market soon.

The big deal is that the biotech's market capitalization has been bumping up against its five-year low lately thanks to this rather anemic outlook. In response, Jefferies' analyst Michael Yee published a note last week suggesting that Gilead might now be an attractive takeover target. Its large-cap biopharma peers Allergan and Celgene, after all, both turned into top acquisition targets when their respective market caps bottomed out.

Source Fool.com