Jefferies analyst Biren Amin last week hosted investor meetings with Axovant Sciences' incoming CEO David Hung and Vivek Ramaswamy, who is transitioning to CEO of privately held Roivant. He notes the stock is up 45% since the announcement. "This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Hung said of the investor theory that he believes intepirdine will fail, Amin tells investors in a research note. It seems Axovant's profile fit what Hung was looking for and he conducted extensive due diligence on both intepirdine and nelotanserin, the analyst writes. He adds that the new CEO believes both products, in aggregate, offer five opportunities for value creation. Regarding the late September Phase III readout for intepirdine in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, Amin believes Axovant shares could trade to $80-$90 with strong improvement on the Alzheimer's disease assessment scale, or ADS-cog, of 1.5 point at 24 weeks and positive ADCS-adl, or Alzheimer's disease cooperative study - activities of daily living outcome. With a more moderate outcome where ADS-cog ranges between 0.7 and 1.3 point improvement and ADCS-adl does not achieve statistical significance, the analyst thinks the shares could still range higher to $45-$50. If the Mindset trial fails, he thinks the shares could drop to $5. Axovant closed Thursday up $2.20 to $22.

Oppenheimer analyst Jay Olson raised his price target for Axovant Sciences to $30 after leaving a meeting with management "incrementally more positive." The analyst is "encouraged" by management's vision which he says extends beyond dementia into other areas of high unmet need within neurology. He believes the focus on dementia with Lewy bodies and Lewy body dementia, which includes Parkinson's disease dementia, could "create significant value for shareholders." Olson sees a favorable risk/reward profile for intepirdine in the Phase 3 Mindset study with top-line results due in late September. He keeps an Outperform rating on Axovant.

Oppenheimer analyst Jay Olson notes that Axovant Sciences faces two substantial binary events including the Phase 3 MINDSET study results at the end of September and the Phase 2 HEADWAY study results in Q4. The combination of these two events could drive up to 100% valuation upside, he contends. Further, the analyst believes the company is positioned to deliver the first new symptomatic Alzheimer's Disease drug approved by the FDA in over a decade. Olson reiterates an Outperform rating on the shares.