FOCUS
U.S. Life Science Tools & Diagnostics
2019 Outlook: Tools & Dx a Relative
Safe Haven, TMO Our New Top Pick
Looking into 2019, our view is that Life Science Tools & Diagnostics should continue
to be a relative safe haven in healthcare. While 2018 ended on a rocky note, the group
again outperformed the market – up 10%, vs the S&P 500 down 6%. Looking across
end markets, we believe biopharma will remain a growth engine supported by R&D
investment. The push toward personalized medicine drives demand for bioproduction,
CDx, and differentiated offerings from the CROs. Recent data on funding and
investment has been strong. Additionally, industrial macro datapoints provide 2-3
quarters of visibility into end market momentum, an important growth driver for our
Tools coverage. Next, global support for academic funding should continue to drive
LSD growth. Finally, while healthcare has sustainable long-term drivers of growth, we
remain selective in Dx given recent challenges at the national labs. PAMA remains a key
risk, where cuts and consolidation are major themes for our labs & Dx coverage.
We highlight several proprietary sections of our 2019 Outlook:
- Cryo-EM Survey – the Resolution Revolution, TMO Our Top Pick: Customer
feedback on Cryo-EM is very positive – further strengthening the strategic rationale of
Thermo Fisher’s FEI acquisition, and our conviction that the company can sustain peer-
leading growth into 2019. In 4Q18, we performed a series of interviews and survey of
17 customers. Feedback was very positive on how Cryo-EM at FEI is pioneering new
research opportunities in structural biology. Coupled with Thermo Fisher’s customer
value proposition and compelling strategy, we designate TMO as our Top Pick.
- Jack’s Job Board - Launching our Life Science Tools & Dx Careers Tracker: We are
using web-scraping to monitor hiring activity for our coverage universe. For our initial
publication, we highlight A) MYGN (UW): increased GeneSight sales rep openings,
almost 30% annualized since April. B) HOLX (EW): adding “Customer Success
Managers” at CynoSure, while GYN Surgical openings have increased. C) CROs: a
significant increase in the number of employees being hired, which could suggest an
approaching inflection in revenue growth. IQV’s (OW) hiring stands out among peers.
- Lab Survey Says: Network Access Drives Share Changes to Start 2019: We surveyed
primary care docs (n=50) on lab ordering patterns with upcoming network access
expansion. 1) Quest (OW) is expected to gain share (+570bp to 36.1%), predominantly
at the detriment of hospital based labs (-360bp to 19.8%). LabCorp (OW) is expected to
lose modest share (-80bp to 28.6%). 2) Quest and LabCorp were expected to gain
share with 16 and 22 physicians, respectively; a wide margin over hospital labs (3) and
other independent labs (1). 3) Regionally, Quest’s strength was broad-based.
Actions: We designate Thermo Fisher (TMO) as our Top Pick, and raise our PT to $280.
We also upgrade Bio-Rad (BIO) to OW. Finally, we lower our PTs on Myriad Genetics
(MYGN) to $21 and Syneos Health (SYNH) to $45.
In this report, we provide a comprehensive update on the Life Science Tools,
Diagnostics, Labs & CRO industries – including our proprietary end market trackers
and industry overviews. Please join us for a 2019 Outlook conference call today,
January 3, at 11:00am ET: Dial-in: 1-800-706-8249, Passcode: 7757098.
U.S. Life Science Tools & Diagnostics
For a full list of our ratings, price target and
earnings changes in this report, please see
table on page 2.
ience Tools & Diagnostics
mitchell.petersen@barclays.com
Barclays Capital Inc. and/or one of its affiliates does and seeks to do business with
companies covered in its research reports. As a result, investors should be aware that the
firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors
should consider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decision.
PLEASE SEE ANALYST CERTIFICATION(S) AND IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES BEGINNING ON PAGE
391.