Vicore Pharma: KOL & Mgmt Takeaways, buloxibutid's IPF positioning update

Yesterday, we attended a lunch organized by Vicore’s management with Dr. Francesco Bonella, an IPF specialist based in Germany who has advised companies such as Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, Galapagos, and BMS in the development of compounds for rare lung diseases. Dr. Bonella is also an investigato

Vicore Pharma: Phase 2b ASPIRE trial making good progress

Vicore Pharma reported its Q1'25 results which mainly focused on balance sheet items and a recap of corporate achievements for the quarter, with notably i) a cash position at SEK1,049m, and ii) opex stable at SEK91.5m (vs SEK99.3m). We are encouraged to see the good progress in the phase 2b ASPIRE

Q1: Good progress with ASPIRE

Airthings (No_rec, TP: NOK) - Recommendation and target price withdrawn

As a result of DNB Markets acting as financial advisor in conjunction with the company’s announcement (link) of a strategic review prompted by a non-binding letter of intent from Firda AS to explore a potential sale of its business segment assets, we have withdrawn our target price and recommendation.

SpareBank 1 Helgeland (Hold, TP: NOK167.00) - Softer margin, but lower costs

Helped by still-solid core revenues, cost reduction YOY and moderate loan losses, HELG reported a Q1 ROE of 12.3%, despite some margin pressure. With solid earnings generation, the bank increased its CET1 ratio by ~20bp to 18.0% and still guides for a 0.8%-point benefit from the implementation of Basel IV, boding well for meaningful distributions. We have lowered our 2026–2027e EPS by 0–1%, That said, we reiterate our target price of NOK167. With the stock trading at a 2026e P/E of ~12.4x, we continue to find the valuation fair and reiterate our HOLD.

Smartoptics (Buy, TP: NOK27.00) - We remain optimistic

Smartoptics’ Q1 results marked a slower start to the year than we forecast, primarily owing to weaker sales in Devices, which seems to be back to near-term tariff-induced uncertainty. On the flip side, we understand the slowdown seen towards end-Q1 has already caught up again in order inflow, and thus we remain upbeat for the quarters ahead. Following an estimate reduction, we have lowered our target price to NOK27 (30) but reiterate our BUY.