After hosting an investor dinner with Pacira Pharmaceuticals (PCRX) CEO Dave Stack, Jefferies analyst David Steinberg believes a "meaningful sales inflection for Exparel may finally be underway." Management is increasingly confident that an Exparel sales inflection, driven by the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) partnership and expanded nerve block indication, is underway, Steinberg tells investors in a research note. Further, he believes a "potentially significant" Exparel rest-of-work partnership is likely to be announced prior to the end of 2018. The analyst keeps a Buy rating on Pacira Pharmaceuticals with a $49 price target.

BofA analyst Geoff Meacham lowered the firm's price target on Johnson & Johnson to $170 from $180 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. Shares traded down despite a "solid" Q1 and unchanged reported guidance midpoint, which the firm suspects was due to disappointing Carvykti sales and the Vision business, the analyst tells investors. The firm, which thinks commercial execution from key growth franchises remains the focus and investor sentiment can improve on better-than-expected quarterly performance and pipeline readouts, argues that 2024 guidance looks "beatable," but lowers its price target on a lower Carvykti sales outlook.