Why This Analyst Thinks Gilead Sciences Will 'Handily' Beat Q4 Expectations

Gilead Sciences, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GILD) strong sales of its hepatitis C drug will help it beat expectations when the company posts fourth-quarter earnings later today, an analyst said.

"Gilead should beat earnings expectations handily" on strength in sales of its Sovaldi hepatitis treatment, Thomas C. Carr, who publishes a financial newsletter called Dr. Stoxx, told Benzinga in an email.

Gilead shares are up more than 10 percent in the past four weeks, and changed hands recently at $104.76, off 1.3 percent.

Gilead came under pressure in December when AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) agreed to become the exclusive provider of a competing hepatitis C treatment to pharmacy benefits giant PBM Express Scripts.

But fears of a price war were forestalled in January, when Gilead won a similar contract to provide its Sovaldi and Harvoni drugs through CVS Health Corp (NYSE: CVS) and Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET).

Wall Street analysts on average expect Gilead to post earnings of $2.22 a share on revenue of $6.72 billion.

Gilead's Sovaldi, which costs a reported $84,000 for a 12-week treatment, is "95 percent effective with far fewer side effects. As one doctor told me recently, 'This is a great time to have Hep-C!' " said Carr.