ScoPo’s Powerplays: 'Go long equities' as Nanosonics, Antisense, Volpara to benefit from V-shaped recovery

Healthcare and life sciences expert Scott Power, who has been a senior analyst with Morgans Financial for 24 years, explains what the movers and shakers have been doing in health and gives his ASX powerplays.

Theme of the week

Healthcare finished the week down 0.22 per cent, compared to the broader market which ended flat.

The general view out of Morgans supports a reopening of the economy, sustained government stimulus, and EPS growth.

This, according to Power, will also have a positive impact on healthcare stocks for the next half of the year.

“We’ve seen a V-shaped recovery, but the risk from this of course is inflation,” Power told Stockhead.

“For a 6 to 12 month time horizon however, our view is to be long equities, and that’s positive for healthcare.”

Stocks of the week

For stocks of the week, Power points to Nanosonics (ASX:NAN), who just launched a new infection prevention digital product platform, the Nanosonics AuditPro.

The platform was developed to provide a new digital workflow compliance management system, with potential applicability across a range of medical instruments which will provide the company with a new stream of revenue source.

The NAN share price has fallen by over 30 per cent in the past six months, but Power believes the next quarter will be pivotal, with Morgans now upgrading its view from a Hold to an Add.

Morgans has a price target of $6.69 on NAN, with the share price currently trading at $5.64.

The other stock Power pointed to was that of Antisense Therapeutics (ASX:ANP), which has just announced a collaboration with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute to explore the use of its lead drug ATL1102 in immune-mediated inflammatory muscle diseases.

Recent animal model data produced allows the company to assess its drug in combination with existing treatments, in particular the gene therapy drugs which look to restore dystrophin levels.

Power says that he has a speculative buy on ANP stock at 44c, with the shares now trading hands at 22c.

Other announcements you might have missed

Cynata Therapeutics (ASX:CYP) +3% for the week

The company has received approval by the Central Adelaide Local Health Network Human Research Ethics Committee to commence a Phase 1 clinical trial of Cynata’s Cymerus mesenchymal stem cell product in patients with diabetic foot ulcers.

Pharmaxis (ASX:PXS) + 13% for the week

The company announced the sale of its distribution rights in Australia, New Zealand and several Asian territories for its cystic fibrosis product Bronchitol, and asthma diagnostic Aridol. In the deal, Pharmaxis is set to receive a distributor appointment fee from Bioimpact of $2 million.

Elixinol Wellness (ASX:EXL) +8% for the week

The company told shareholders that it will terminate the proposed acquisition of Cannacare, citing a changed German market outlook with rapidly intensifying competition.

Proteomics (ASX:PIQ) unchanged for the week

The company has just come out of a trading halt after clarifying that its previous statement on the 25 June not to be interpreted as forecast financial information. The company had earlier announced that its PromarkerD prognostic blood test could save US taxpayers almost US$400 billion over 10 years. The PromarkerD test, according to the company, is the only test capable of predicting the onset of diabetic kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Telix (ASX:TLX) -8.65% for the week

The company announced that a first patient has been dosed in a Phase I study of TLX250-CDx in patients with urothelial carcinoma or bladder cancer.

ScoPo’s Powerplay

Power’s stock of the week is Volpara Heatlh (ASX:VHT).

Volpara is down by almost 13 per cent this year, but Power believes this is one of the stocks that will rebound in July following the tax loss selling in June.

The breast cancer imaging company delivered a record revenue of just under NZ$20m for its FY21 full year results.

The views, information, or opinions expressed in the interview in this article are solely those of the interviewee and do not represent the views of Stockhead.

Stockhead has not provided, endorsed or otherwise assumed responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article.