JPMorgan Upgrades Biogen to Overweight, Sets $300 Target as Shares Hit 12‑Month High

JPMorgan upgraded BIIB from Neutral to Overweight on Monday, October 12, and lifted its price target to $300 from $210, a level the note put roughly 33% above Friday's $225.71 close. The call is a pipeline call rather than a Leqembi call: JPMorgan pointed to felzartamab in antibody-mediated rejection, which it sees as an opportunity worth more than $2 billion, and to litifilimab in cutaneous lupus erythematosus, a condition with no approved therapy today.

Timing is what makes the upgrade concrete. Biogen says the Phase 3 portion of its AMETHYST study of litifilimab in cutaneous lupus is expected to read out in the first half of 2027, and felzartamab's Phase 3 results are also expected in the first half of next year, so both catalysts fall within the typical 12-month horizon of a sell-side target. JPMorgan was not alone in turning more constructive in recent days: UBS raised its target to $270 from $240 and RBC trimmed its own to $256 from $260.

The market took the upgrade at face value. Shares were indicated as much as 3.2% higher before the open, at $232.95, on track for their highest level since July 2024, and the stock has gained more than 27% this year. By early afternoon BIIB traded at $234.88, up 4.1%, above the $230.49 52-week high it carried into the session. JPMorgan's $300 now sits at the top of the Street: SentiSense's analyst consensus shows a $175 to $300 range across 31 analysts with a $239.18 average, so the new target is about 25% above the mean.

What to watch: Biogen reports third-quarter results on October 28, the first read on whether Leqembi and the base business can carry the stock while investors wait for data. The upgrade concentrates the bull case on two binary 2027 readouts, so any change to their timing or a weak interim signal would test a valuation that has already moved ahead of most of the Street.