The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Dean Foods, Isis Pharmaceuticals, OncoGenex, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – May 10, 2011 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Dean Foods Co. (DF - Analyst Report), Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ISIS - Analyst Report), OncoGenex (OGXI - Snapshot Report), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK - Analyst Report) and Sanofi-Aventis (SNY - Analyst Report).

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Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Earnings Preview: Dean Foods

Dean Foods Co. (DF - Analyst Report) is scheduled to release its first-quarter 2011 results on Tuesday, May 10, 2011. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is 6 cents a share for the first quarter of fiscal 2011. This represents a year-over-year estimated decline of 73.9%.

Fourth Quarter Performance      

Dean Foods’ adjusted earnings per share for the fourth quarter fiscal 2010 came in at 15 cents, well behind 31 cents recorded in the year-ago quarter but beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny.

The company’s quarterly net sales grew 5.5% year over year to $3,153.0 million, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3,176.0 million. The growth was primarily a pass-through of higher commodity costs at Fresh Dairy Direct-Morningstar to consumers in the form of higher prices and record top and bottom line performance at WhiteWave-Alpro that were partially offset by volume softness at Fresh Dairy Direct-Morningstar.

Earnings Guidance 

The company expects dairy commodity prices to rise due to global demand and poor weather in Australia and New Zealand in the first half of fiscal 2011.

Moreover, the company is in the midst of a massive cost reduction effort, which it expects would deliver $125.0 million in productivity in fiscal 2011. Dean Foods is expecting full year 2011 adjusted earnings to be in the range of 55 cents to 65 cents.

Agreement of Analysts

Over the last 30 days, none of the analysts moved their estimates in either direction for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 thereby leaving the consensus unchanged. This implies that most of the analysts are neutral on the outlook and do not foresee any upward catalyst or downward pressure on the result. For fiscal 2011, 1 analyst out of 15 has decreased the estimate with no upward movement by any analyst over the last 30 days.

In the last 7 days, no movement has been made in estimates by any analyst for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2011.

Magnitude of Estimate Revisions

With no revision in estimates by any analyst in the last 7 and 30 days for the first quarter of fiscal 2011, the estimate has remained static at 6 cents a share. Over the last 30 days, the estimate for fiscal 2011 has gone down by 1 cent to 57 cents a share to account for a stray downward revision by one analyst. Over the last 7 days, there has been no movement in estimates for fiscal 2011. 

Earnings Surprise

Considering earnings surprises, the stock has not been steady over the last four quarters, with a mix of positive and negative surprises ranging between a low of -38.1% and a high of 20.0%. The average remained negative at 7.2%.

The upside potential for the estimate in the first quarter 2011, essentially a proxy for future earnings surprises, currently stands at 0.0%.

Isis Pharma Loss Widens

Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ISIS - Analyst Report) reported a net loss of 20 cents per share in the first quarter of 2011, wider than the year-ago loss of 10 cents and the Zacks Consensus loss Estimate of 19 cents.

Revenues came in at $21.1 million, well below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $26 million. Lower revenues and higher operating expenses led to the wider first quarter 2011 loss.

Quarter in Detail

Revenues, which include license fees, milestone-related payments and other payments, declined 29.3% from the year-ago period during the first quarter of 2011. Isis Pharma earned a $750,000 milestone payment from OncoGenex (OGXI - Snapshot Report) on the initiation of a phase II study with OGX-427.

First quarter revenues also included revenues recognized under the company’s collaboration agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK - Analyst Report). Isis Pharma could receive another milestone payment from Glaxo soon on the initiation of a phase I study with ISIS-TTRRx.

Operating expenses increased 7% during the quarter to $37.3 million mainly due to the advancement of the company’s pipeline. While research and development expenses increased 7.1% to $34.2 million, general and administrative expenses increased 6.8% to $3 million.

2011 Outlook Maintained

Isis Pharma maintained its outlook for 2011. The company expects net operating loss in the low $40 million range. Isis Pharma expects to exit the year with more than $350 million of cash.

Pipeline Update

Isis Pharma and partner Genzyme -- now a part of Sanofi-Aventis (SNY - Analyst Report) -- intend to file for European approval of lead pipeline candidate, mipomersen, early in the third quarter of 2011. The companies intend to seek approval for patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and severe heterozygous FH.

The US application, which will be submitted in the second half of 2011, will be for the homozygous FH indication. Isis Pharma, along with Genzyme, intends to conduct a 12-month study to support a filing for the severe heterozygous FH patient population in the US.

The acceptance of the new drug application (NDA) filing in the US will trigger a $25 million milestone payment from Genzyme. We believe the NDA will come up for review before the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee.

Isis Pharma is also looking to identify a candidate which will incorporate generation 2.5 chemistry, the next step in antisense technology. According to the company, generation 2.5 drugs will be five to ten times more potent than drugs currently in development. The company intends to add three or more novel drugs to its pipeline during the year.

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Read the full analyst report on DF

Read the full analyst report on ISIS

Read the full analyst report on OGXI

Read the full analyst report on GSK

Read the full analyst report on SNY