Horizon Pharma raises bid for Depomed to $33 per share

Depomed said its Board of Directors, in consultation with its independent financial and legal advisors, will carefully review and evaluate the revised proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.

Horizon in late May approached Depomed later going public July 7 with an all-stock offer of $29.50 a share, which Depomed rejected.

Shares of Horizon rose less than 1 percent Tuesday to close at $38.45 in New York. The same period from past year had $0.21 in EPS on $66.06 million in revenue. This corresponds to an increase of $0.12 compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

In other Horizon Pharma PLC news, EVP Jeffrey W. Sherman sold 26,887 shares of Horizon Pharma PLC stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 15th.

A merged company will have 13 marketed drugs, almost doubling Horizon Pharma’s current portfolio of seven, and is expected to result in 2015 net sales of over $950 million.

Analysts at Zacks have given a short term rating of hold on Horizon Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:HZNP) with a rank of 3. The total amount of the transaction was worth $955,833, according to the disclosed information with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a Form 4 filing.

A recent analyst activity consisted of Leerink Swann who initiated their coverage on the stock with Outperform rating on May 22. The stock ended up at $38.45. They set a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at Jefferies Group initiated coverage on shares of Horizon Pharma PLC in a research note on Friday, May 15th. The higher estimate has been put at $40 price target with the lower price estimate is calculated at $22 The company shares have rallied 157.43% in the past 52 Weeks. The stock now has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $34.60. The 1-year stock price history is in the range of $7.85 – $37.46.

Last September, Horizon closed a deal to merge with Dublin-based Vidara Therapeutics global Ltd. three days before USA regulators cracked down on tax-beneficial corporate migrations known as tax inversions, in which an American company moves its tax home to a country such as the United Kingdom or Ireland, where corporate taxes are lower.