We recently published a list of the 10 Best Performing Pharma Stocks So Far in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Akero Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRO) stands against other best performing pharma stocks so far in 2025.
What’s Going on in the Pharma Sector?
On February 20, Jared Holz, Mizuho healthcare sector strategist, appeared on ‘Squawk Box’ to discuss the potential challenges and opportunities the pharmaceutical industry may face under the new Trump administration. Talking about the pharma’s agenda in Washington, where the big names of the pharma industry were set to meet with President Trump on February 20, Holz said that while it is tough to talk about the valuation of pharma companies, the significance of the meeting is to have a sort of collaborative effort between the industry and the government to see where they can move things over time. The stocks have exhibited either a little bit or a lot of worry over the RFK front, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. This was based on the nomination made last year, along with the comments made by either him or other appointees to this government.
Looking at the pharma and biotech sector, Holz opined that much of the underperformance of the past few years can be attributed to the nebulousness surrounding policies. The industry is now facing the current administration, which is much more apt to be rogue in terms of policy by many accounts. That has put a lid on the subsectors and their performance in the industry. He said that at some point, the pharma industry will thaw. While he isn’t sure which factors could potentially lead to this thawing, he is sure about the outcome, as there is likely to be a more definitive strategy and plan for how things would go in the industry. The February 20 meeting of the pharma industry’s biggest lobbying group with President Trump could be a factor behind this potential outcome.
We recently discussed the healthcare sector and its dynamics in the stock market in a recently published article on the 10 Best Performing Healthcare Stocks So Far in 2025. Here is an excerpt from the article:
“Despite the ongoing craze surrounding the GLP-1 obesity drugs, the healthcare sector was a lagger last year. On January 3, Jared Holz, Mizuho Securities America’s healthcare sector strategist, appeared on CNBC’s ‘Squawk on the Street’ to talk about the healthcare sector’s outlook in 2025. While he anticipates another year of underperformance for the sector, he also believes that healthcare has “been so bad, maybe it’s gonna be good” in 2025.
Holz further said that the healthcare sector presents a calamity since there aren’t a lot of easy spaces in the domain. Other industry verticals, such as technology and financials, are well set up. Healthcare, in contrast, appears to have several variables in place, and most of them are not positive. However, he believed that the MedTech sector provides a sort of safety net in such a tumultuous sector.”
Where Does India Come in With Trump’s Tariffs?
On February 13, Ramesh Swaminathan, Global CFO of pharmaceutical company Lupin, appeared on CNBC to talk about where India comes in, in the materialization and effects of Trump’s tariffs. He warned that the tariffs may deny a number of American citizens access to critical medications, as a substantial share of these pharmaceutical drugs comes from India. According to CNBC, US imports of pharmaceutical products totaled $176 billion from overseas and $6 billion from China in 2023.
Swaminathan said that since nearly 45% to 50% of the pharmaceuticals sold in America are of Indian origin, the tariffs will undoubtedly impact the common person. However, since there are several reciprocal tariffs in the works, it is difficult to understand what ultimately would happen in the industry, and a number of scenarios are open for discussion.
Our Methodology
We used Finviz to screen pharma stocks and looked at their year-to-date (YTD) performance, as of February 20, 2025, to select the best performing stocks. We also included the number of hedge fund holders for each stock as of Q4 2024. We sourced the hedge fund sentiment data from Insider Monkey’s database. The list is sorted in ascending order of year-to-date performance.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 363.5% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 208 percentage points (see more details here).
A scientist in a lab coat examining a sample under a microscope in a laboratory.
Akero Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRO)
YTD Performance: 80.61%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 30
Akero Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRO) is a clinical-stage company that develops transformational treatments for patients with serious metabolic diseases that have high unmet medical needs, such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), which does not have any approved therapies. The company’s primary product is efruxifermin (EFX), which treats MASH and is undergoing phase 3 of clinical trials. Efruxifermin (EFX) is an analog of fibroblast growth factor 21, an endogenously expressed hormone that regulates carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins while offering protection against cellular stress.
The Phase 2b study of the drug was well-received by participants, with no deaths and only minor adverse effects reported, causing the stock to surge in January. EFX has the potential to become a first-in-class therapy for MASH-induced cirrhosis, which is causing investors to be bullish on the company.
Akero Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRO) also completed an upsized public offering in January, raising $402.5 million by selling 6.4 million shares at $48 each. 30 hedge funds hold stakes in the company as of Q3 2024.
Overall, AKRO ranks 1st on our list of the best performing pharma stocks so far in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of AKRO as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AKRO but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.