When you’re looking for companies with the potential to deliver big gains over the course of a year, you need to find ones that have a lot of bullish catalysts, suggests Jim Woods, growth stock expert and editor of Successful Investing.
Even better, is when the word “catalyst” is literally part of that company’s name — and that company is Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CPRX).
CPRX is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on developing and commercializing innovative therapies for people with rare, debilitating, and chronic neuromuscular and neurological diseases. It offers Firdapse, a proprietary form of amifampridine phosphate, used in the treatment of patients with Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome.
Shares of CPRX were one of the market’s most successful stock stories in 2022. That’s because they delivered investors a year-to-date gain of over 136% (through Dec. 16). And while it’s true that this stellar return might be hard to beat in 2023, there is no reason why we can’t see a continuation of the big gains in CPRX again in the year to come.
I say that, because over the past two years the shares are up 318%, a remarkable run higher that shows a track record of professional money moving in for alpha on the back of catalyst that is, well, Catalyst.
Interestingly, despite the big run higher in CPRX in recent years, many analysts think the stock is still undervalued. While it trades at a P/E ratio of just over 26, that’s well below many stocks in this space, and it’s well below the average in the biotech segment, which depending on the sub-segment can be as high as a P/E of 45.
More importantly, CPRX is a biopharma company with amazing earnings growth. Over the past three years, the company’s products have roared in with an annual EPS growth rate of 54%. That metric, along with strong quarterly earnings leading up to this writing, puts CPRX in the top 1% of all stocks in terms of earnings per share growth.
So, if you want a proven track record of alpha in a biopharma company making big profits, and likely to continue making those big profits in 2023, then you must put this “Catalyst” on your 2023 Top Picks list.
