Thread by @peregreine

1) $LGND on #PeregineWatchlist . . . already nibbling.

Last Earnings 3 Feb 21 BMO

Profit: $1.42 per share
+43.43% eBEAT
+29.00% rBEAT
Earnings Growth: +178.22% yoy
Revenue Growth: +159.20% yoy

2) 3911 Sorrento Valley Boulevard, Suite 110
San Diego, California
ligand.com
Sector: Health Care
Industry: Biotechnology
Employees: 115

3) DESCRIPTION
Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company, which engages in the development and acquisition of technologies that help pharmaceutical companies to discover and develop medicines.

4) Its products include evomela, IV voriconazole, duavee, viviant/conbriza, nexterone, and noxafil-IV. The company was founded by Ronald M. Evans in 1987 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.

5) Summary as of: 18 Feb 21
OPEN147.56
PREVIOUS CLOSE148.83
DAY RANGE143.82 - 149.45
52-WEEK RANGE57.24 - 219.75
ALL-TIME HIGH278.62
AVG. VOLUME (50-DAY)711,489
EPS (TTM)-0.20
NEXT EARNINGS DATE5/6/2021 (BMO)
LAST EARNINGS DATE2/3/2021
OPTIONSYes

6) Fundamentals

PRICE TO BOOK3.43
PRICE TO CASH FLOW32.82
PRICE TO FREE CASH FLOW-
TOTAL SALES (TTM)186.27 M
REVENUE PER SHARE (TTM)11.16
SHARES OUTSTANDING16.09 M
SHARE FLOAT (%)15.27 M (94.93%)
% HELD BY INSTITUTIONS146.80

7) Technicals
+/- EMA(20)166.42 (-12.94%)
+/- SMA(50)132.25 (+9.56%)
+/- SMA(200)110.26 (+31.41%)
5-DAY PERF.-19.52%
1-MONTH PERF.+17.47%
3-MONTH PERF.+77.82%
6-MONTH PERF.+25.09%
YTD PERF.+45.69%
1-YEAR PERF.+47.77%
RSI(14)42.82
ATR(14)15.98
BETA (5Y)1.18

8) ALERT!
Short float is 39.08% per finviz
Short Ratio is 9.51% per finviz

9) 13 Jan 21 "This collaboration with Merck is one of the core assets that catalyzed our acquisition of Pfenex last October," said John Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Ligand." finance.yahoo.com/news/ligand-re…

10) "If commercially launched, Ligand is entitled to a low-single-digit royalty on net sales of V114."

11) 2 Feb 21 "Under Ligand’s license agreement with Travere for sparsentan, Ligand is entitled to receive a net $5.9 million milestone on NDA submission, other potential milestone payments and net royalties of 9% on future worldwide sales by Travere. sale.finance.yahoo.com/news/ligand-pa…

12) "The royalty term is expected to be 10 years following the first commercial."

13) CEO John Higgins: " There have been four recent defining factors for Ligand driving our value. One, major expansion of our OmniAb antibody discovery platform; .fool.com/earnings/call-…

14) . . .two, the most prolific acquisition year in our history, diversifying and adding to our growth prospects; therapeuticsthree, serving Gilead to meet their Veklury production needs to help address the ongoing global health crisis; and four, stellar financial performance."

15) "I will now expand on each of these four factors. First, I'll comment on the growth of our OmniAb business. We bought this platform five years ago, and over the past year, we made major investments in the technology and expanded the team to solidify Ligand's position . . .

16) "...as the industry-leading, best-in-class antibody discovery platform. OmniAb provides our partners with access to the world's most advanced antibody repertoires in screening technologies to enable unparalleled discovery of next-generation therapeutics."

17) "It's a highly efficient and customizable end-to-end solution for the growing antibody discovery needs of the global biopharmaceutical industry. At the heart of our OmniAb platform are both our AI-enhanced models and the biological intelligence or the BI of . . .

18) . . . our proprietary transgenic animals that generate high-quality, fully human antibodies optimized naturally through the animal systems. Partners seek out Ligand due to the quality of our science, our discovery efficiency, and our proprietary inventions. "

19) "We help partners create mono and bispecific antibodies that become leading drug candidates targeting some of the world's most challenging health needs. The antibody market is exploding in size with major new treatments coming to market at an increasing rate."

20) "Antibodies are also the largest area of R&D investment in the industry. We are pleased to see the recent increased visibility and valuations within the investment community for antibody drug discovery technologies with newly minted public companies, . . . "

21)". . . increasing consolidation through M&A, and existing participants moving up in value. Ligand is very well-positioned as a leader as we have more and more partners, a growing roster of late-stage clinical trials and a large number of potential regulatory approvals . . ."

22) " . . . over the next five years. Recent market developments validate the upside potential for Ligand. We see 2021 as a breakout year for this platform given expected first ever OmniAb drug regulatory approval and key trial data from various programs due this year. "

23) "2020 was Ligand's most productive year ever for M&A with four deals and nearly $0.5 billion deployed. The deals brought us earnings accretion, new partners, lucrative contracts, new laboratories and 100 new scientists to expand our services. M&A is a particular . . . "

24) "streak for Ligand. 10 years ago, we bought Captisol, and five years ago we acquired OmniAb. Both acquisitions have been major unequivocal successes. The Ligand strategy team has good instincts for where to invest driven by insight and collaboration with more than 125 . . ."

25) ". . . corporate partners. We invest where the science is best and where it's heading. Our recent deals give you a sense for where we see major future opportunity. "

26) "We are doubling down the antibody space, with two more tuck-in OmniAb acquisitions this past year and we bought Icagen and Pfenex, giving us a premier position in the ion channel space and a proprietary protein expression platform."

27) "All the new operating units are successfully and fully integrated into Ligand and are projected to contribute meaningfully to our business in 2021. Thirdly, a major factor is our work with Gilead, meeting their immense needs for Captisol to manufacture . . . "

28) "Veklury, the COVID-19 treatment. Our work started more than a year ago now. It has been an all-consuming and rewarding mission both scientifically and medically. Gilead relies on Ligand's Captisol to formulate Veklury. Beyond delivering a necessary . . . "

29) ". . . manufacturing ingredient that makes the drug possible, we are partners to Gilead in assisting and supporting an important element of the production work. Medical experts are suggesting COVID-19 will be endemic . . . "

30) "meaning it's a disease that will be around to some degree for years to come. Our view today is that Veklury will remain a standard of care and a backbone to future therapies."

31) "We have deployed over $500 million in the past two years buying back more than 5 million shares or 25% of our stock. The average price we paid is $104 per share. We reviewed a wide range of the options for capital deployment and saw the buyback of Ligand's stock as . . . "

32) "an obvious highly attractive, deep-value opportunity. Now, with the reduction in shares outstanding, we have meaningfully increased the outlook for earnings and cash flow per share for all shareholders going forward. As I conclude my remarks, . . . "

33) "I want to add that Ligand is providing great service to our partners and executing efficiently."