Barclays Is Boosting Teva's PT

Barclays raised its price target on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE: TEVA) Thursday to $80 and maintained an Overweight rating.

The analyst note followed a meeting with Teva CEO Siggi Olafsson.

Analyst Douglas D. Tsao believed believed TEVA had a lot of things go its way recently,” and noted in particular, the “positive reception” to the Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: ASPX) acquisition “as well as strong Phase 2b results for its anti-CGRP monoclonal antibody.”

The strength of TEVA's generics business was also highlighted along with winning key approvals recently.

“While noting fewer ANDA submissions this year as a vestige of R&D cuts in 2013,” Olafsson expected “that to improve with the reinvestment that began last year,” according to the analyst.

Addressing the need for industry consolidation, “Olafsson noted the opportunity to capture up to $2bn in cost synergies from a merger between any two of the top-4 generics makers. Olafsson highlighted a 3-year synergy capture, which is a bit faster than we thought, suggesting upside to our 20 percent EPS accretion estimate,” Tsao wrote.

Tsao indicated that Olafsson “highlighted the importance of global scale,” which suggested a preference for acquiring “assets with international depth.”

Teva Pharmaceutical recently traded at $67.27, up 1.13 percent.