Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX): Go Against the Grain With This A-Rated Stock

Neurocrine Biosciences (NASDAQ: NBIX) has seen a lot of volatility in the past month — and now is an opportune time to buy the stock.

First, let’s set the stage to see how we came to this conclusion. A steady 8% gain in mid to late October culminated on October 29, when the company held its Q3 2025 report. Despite a significant beat, which saw EPS come in at $2.04 versus analyst estimates of $1.58, the stock then tumbled by roughly 6.3% on account of profit taking.

Then, the uptrend resumed — until the midpoint of last week, when news of a failed antidepressant phase 2 clinical trial was released, resulting in the latest 7% dip we’ve seen.

That was an overreaction. Sure, failed clinical trials aren’t good news, but they aren’t particularly rare either. Roughly 90% of drug candidates fail to achieve FDA approval.

Here’s what intelligent investors understand about NBIX’s longer-term prospects, though…

To background this a bit, you have to understand that Neurocrine did not have all its eggs in one basket. This isn’t some fresh startup — the company has been in business since 1992, and it maintains both a healthy product portfolio and a robust pipeline.

Neurocrine’s flagship product, Ingrezza, saw $624 million in second-quarter sales, as well as a record number of new patient starts. Its most recent launch, Crenessity, saw sales jump from $15 million last quarter to $53 million this quarter. To boot, the business initiated two phase 3 trials, as well as one phase 1 trial — so it isn’t resting on its laurels either.

A note from our sponsors...

Operationally, there’s nothing wrong here — and while a failed trial is definitely a setback, it will more than likely prove to be a temporary one. The only questions that remain are: at current prices, and with current growth prospects, is NBIX worth a shot? Do the metrics pan out?

I think so — for one, our proprietary quant rating system, Zen Ratings, places Neurocrine Biosciences in elite company. 

Per a review of 115 unique factors, NBIX ranks in the top 1% of stocks. Actually, it's ranked 36th overall, out of the roughly 4,600 equities that we track. This gives NBIX a Zen Rating of A — and stocks with that distinction have provided an average annual return of 32.52% since the early 2000s.

Each Zen Rating is a composite score of 7 Component Grade ratings, which we’ll have to take a look at to understand why Neurocrine Biosciences is a promising stock.

With earnings estimated to grow at a rate of 25.48% per year, NBIX ranks in the top 14% of stocks in terms of Growth. On top of that, the stock isn’t expensive — it’s trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 33.45x, compared to the market average of 44.95x, which puts it in the top 9% for Value.

The average 12-month price forecast for NBIX, based on the coverage of 13 Wall Street analysts, sits at $176.15, and implies a hefty 22.19% upside. 

Citigroup’s Yigal Nochomovitz (a top 11% rated analyst) issues the Street-high price target of $203, which implies a 40.81% upside. Nochomovitz’s last analyst note states that Crenessity has all the hallmarks of a blockbuster.

Analysts aren’t the only ones bullish on NBIX — management and key company personnel seem just as optimistic. A whopping 46.57% of the insider transactions tied to the stock in the past 12 months have been purchases.

With all of that in mind, it won’t come as a shock that Neurocrine Biosciences shares rank highly in terms of Sentiment — in the top 7%, to be precise.

Then, we have the balance sheet. NBIX’s debt has shrunk, or, rather, halved in the past five years, bringing its debt-to-equity (DE) ratio from 0.87 to 0.42. 

Moreover, it has roughly $2.16 billion in short-term assets — more than enough to cover both short-term liabilities at $638 million and long-term liabilities at $624 million. 

In terms of Financials, Neurocrine Biosciences ranks in the 95th percentile — equivalent to or better than 95% of stocks, or, in other words, in the top 5%.

Then we have our Artificial Intelligence rating, which uses a neural network trained on two decades of market data to identify likely outperformers. This is NBIX’s strongest category — here, it ranks in the top 4% of equities.

Neurocrine Biosciences shares also stack up well against peers and rivals, as NBIX is the 5th highest-rated stock in the Pharmaceutical industry, which has an Industry Rating of B.

The volatility see-saw I mentioned in the beginning might have ended up being a bit confusing. Here’s the short version — a healthy, growing business that blew estimates out of the water is down 6.87% on account of undue panic. That’s a great discount — and you might want to consider taking it.

—> Click here to research NBIX

What to Do Next?

• 77 Best Stocks NOW! >
• See All “A” Rated Stocks with +32.52% Average Annual Return >
• 2 New Stocks to Buy from Steve Reitmeister >

Want to get in touch? Email us at news@wallstreetzen.com.