Report
Karen Andersen
EUR 850.00 For Business Accounts Only

Morningstar | Roche's Daniel O'Day Cements Gilead's Oncology Commitment, but M&A Track Record Minimal

We're not making any changes to our $86 per share fair value estimate for Gilead or CHF 333/$42 fair value estimates for Roche following the announcement that the CEO of Roche's pharmaceutical division, Daniel O'Day, will leave Roche at the end of 2018 and become chairman and CEO at Gilead effective March 1, 2019. O'Day will be replaced by Bill Anderson, who is currently CEO of Roche's Genentech. Anderson has been at Roche since 2006 and has a background in engineering as well as experience leading an immunology business unit and Roche's global product strategy. We are lowering our stewardship rating for Gilead from Exemplary to Standard as we await details on any changes to strategy or performance. Previously, we have applauded Gilead's moat-building investment strategies, good allocation of capital, and superior board independence and qualifications.

Gilead's 2018 was a year of massive management turnover, and while we think the hiring of O'Day adds stability, we're concerned that the firm might still lack the scientific expertise needed to guide accretive mergers or acquisitions, given O'Day's marketing background. Significant turnover gives the firm the opportunity for a fresh management team to enter at a time when massive revenue headwinds from the HCV franchise are abating, but we feel it is too early to assume they can live up to the prior Martin/Milligan team's track record. We see blood cancer and immunology as key areas of future growth for Gilead, which both fit well with O'Day's experience at Roche. However, Gilead's current reliance on its core HIV portfolio for growth puts pressure on both pipeline advancement and M&A. While O'Day has been at Roche for 31 years and has been CEO of Roche's pharmaceutical division since the departure of Pascal Soriot in 2012, our window into O'Day's ability to make good deals is limited (including the $8 billion acquisition of Intermune and the mildly disappointing oral IPF drug Esbriet).
Underlying
Roche Holding Ltd

Roche Holding is a healthcare company. Co. operates in two Divisions, Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Co.'s pharmaceuticals division is comprised of two business segments Roche Pharmaceuticals and Chugai. Co.'s pharmaceuticals division provides therapies including Cotellic, in combination with Zelboraf for advanced melanoma, and Alecensa for a specific type of lung cancer. Co.'s diagnostics division consists of four business areas: Diabetes Care, Molecular Diagnostics, Professional Diagnostics and Tissue Diagnostics. Co.'s diagnostics division provides in vitro diagnostic tests, used by healthcare providers to screen, diagnose and monitor therapies.

Provider
Morningstar
Morningstar

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offer an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors.

Morningstar provides data on approximately 530,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 18 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries and had approximately $185 billion in assets under advisement and management as of June 30, 2016.

We have operations in 27 countries.

Analysts
Karen Andersen

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