Three analysts upgraded Biogen after the biotech company reported “best-case” results from the late stages of a study on a potential Alzheimer’s drug. Biogen’s results from Phase 3 of a drug study targeting ABeta spurred enthusiasm from BMO along with analysts from Baird and Mizuho, who see the results leading to FDA approval, government reimbursement and limited competition. The results basically show that the drug from Biogen slows down the decline of Alzheimer’s patients. Volunteers who took the drug, called lecanemab, experienced a reduction in cognitive decline of about 27%. Biogen stock jumped 48% in the money market on the news. “We think the top data are as strong as possible, with high statistical significance across all endpoints,” said BMO analyst Evan David Seigerman. “The data isn’t much cleaner than this in biotechnology.” Seigerman is the most optimistic about Biogen, saying he “can’t sit on the sidelines anymore” after seeing the results of phase three. It is “very unlikely that Medicare would withhold coverage for a drug that has been shown to slow decline in a large, randomized clinical trial,” he said. He’s raised his Biogen price target to $360 per share, 82% above where the stock closed Tuesday. The analyst also upgrades the company to outperform the market performance. A homerun Meanwhile, Mizuho analyst Salim Syed upgraded Biogen to buy from neutral, raising his 30% price target to $270 from $207. The new target implies a 36.5% gain from Tuesday’s close. Syed said the results are in line with what would be considered a “winning” investor, noting that this is “potentially sufficient for regulatory approval.” Baird chief analyst Brian Sk also sees Biogen taking a big hit, upgrading the stock to the upper hand and raising its price target to $340 from $224. The new price target is 71.9% above Tuesday’s close. Skyers said it was the “first clear positive study” for this type of Alzheimer’s disease study. “In the long-term continuation of the ABeta programs, we think there needs to be some concessions here,” he added. “In the diagram of the disease, this is not an outcome,” he added. incredible, but compared to all the data sets that have come before, this is an astounding result.” – Michael Bloom of CNBC contributed to this report.