Natera Gains Medicare Coverage for WGS Signatera, Leerink Reaffirms Price Target
Natera Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is one of billionaire Stan Druckenmiller's top stock picks with huge upside potential. Leerink Partners analysts reiterated their Outperform rating on Natera Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) on June 4. Given recent adjustments to Medicare's reimbursement of Natera's WGS Signatera assay, the analysts maintained their price target for the company at $220.
Natera Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) recently revealed that MolDX had approved Medicare coverage for its WGS Signatera assay. The update followed the findings of a bridging study that showed similar performance between the WGS Signatera and the previously released WES Signatera. The WGS Signatera assay has been expanded to encompass a number of ailments, including colorectal cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer, and pan-cancer immunotherapy monitoring.
Analysts expect that WES Signatera will continue to dominate Signatera volumes in the near term, despite the recent coverage. That said, now that it is eligible for reimbursement, the WGS Signatera assay may see a modest rise in usage.
One of the top providers of cell-free DNA and genetic testing, Natera Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) focuses primarily on women's health, cancer, and organ health.
While we acknowledge the potential of NTRA as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
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Forbes
25 minutes ago
- Forbes
Nike's Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon And The Global Branding Moonshot
Athlete, Faith Kipyegon, running the 1500m race at the Athlos NYC track meet at Randalls Island in ... More New York, US, on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. Alexis Ohanian aims to shake up women's track with Athlos, an event combining music, racing and bigger prize money. Photographer: Bryan Banducci/Bloomberg Nike's Breaking4 isn't just a race. It's a branding moonshot that's rewriting the playbook for women's sport. On June 26th in Paris, middle-distance legend Faith Kipyegon will attempt to become the first woman in history to run a sub-four-minute mile. While the world watches the clock, Nike is staging something parallel in ambition, different in form: a global campaign that fuses performance science, emotional storytelling, and cultural reframing into a single, high-stakes brand moment. Faith Kipyegon is accomplishing what was once thought impossible. By breaking records and redefining the limits of human performance, she is not just competing; she is transforming the narrative of what women can achieve in sports. Her journey is a testament to resilience, vision, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. This isn't corporate posturing. Nike's Breaking4 and Faith Kipyegon's quest aren't just aligned—they are reflections of the same belief: that boldness, when shared, can shift culture. One brand, one athlete, betting on the impossible together. With echoes of its ground-shifting Breaking2 marathon project, Nike's Breaking4 is building not only toward a finish line - but toward a shift in perception, visibility, and belief around women's athletic potential. Here's how the Swoosh is turning one athlete's quest into a multi-platform experience designed to inspire the world. What Is a Branding Moonshot? A branding moonshot is when a company invests in an audacious, high-risk campaign designed to redefine cultural narratives, not just market share. It's less about immediate ROI and more about reshaping what a brand stands for - and what's possible in its category. In the case of Breaking4, Nike isn't simply promoting a race; it's engineering a historic first, amplifying a human story, and challenging generational assumptions about gender and athletic limits. It's not marketing for margin - it's marketing for meaning. As Gillian Oakenfull highlights in her Forbes article, 'Winning With Women's Sports: Executing The KickGlass Marketing Playbook', brands that lead with purpose and authenticity in the women's sports market are not just driving cultural change but also achieving significant brand growth. Her assertion that 'being a force for good and driving brand growth are one and the same' underscores the strategic alignment of Nike's Breaking4 campaign with a broader cultural and commercial shift. Innovation as Experience Design At the heart of this effort is a campaign built on Nike's deepest brand truth: relentless innovation. That commitment is perhaps most evident in the technology Nike has developed around Kipyegon, who currently holds the women's mile world record at 4:07.64. For her Breaking4 bid, Nike has designed a 'Speed Kit' from the ground up. Kipyegon will wear a pair of Victory Elite FK spikes - featherlight at 85 grams and equipped with Zoom Air pods that return up to 90% of energy with each stride. Anchored by a razor-thin carbon plate and titanium pins, the shoe is tuned to her exact biomechanics. But the real revolution lies above the ankle. Nike's Fly Suit - a one-piece aerodynamic race suit - features textured bumps called Aeronodes that manipulate airflow to reduce drag, much like the dimples on a golf ball. Strategically ventilated and sculpted for compression in the right places, it's designed to help Kipyegon conserve energy at 15 mph over four punishing laps. And perhaps the most radical innovation of all? The FlyWeb Bra - a 3D-printed, seamless piece of racewear designed specifically for Kipyegon. Printed from thermoplastic polyurethane and mapped to her anatomy using computational design, it delivers support without bulk and breathability like nothing else on the market. It's not built for a season - it's built for a single mile. As Tim Newcomb reports in Forbes, Nike's innovation team worked directly with Kipyegon to prototype gear tailored to her biomechanics and race-day conditions—right down to the 3D-printed titanium pins in her spikes and the energy return of the Zoom Air unit. This is branding not as advertising, but as experience design. Every piece of gear reinforces Nike's identity as a performance-first innovator, engineered for athletes on the edge of what's possible. Mythologizing the Athlete: Storytelling With Stakes Great brands don't just market - they mythologize. And Nike, through its two-part docuseries on Prime Video, is doing just that. Titled Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon vs. the 4-Minute Mile, the series chronicles not just Kipyegon's training, but her humanity: a mother, a champion, a dreamer chasing something once deemed out of reach. The campaign elevates what could have been a single live-stream into a global narrative arc. Part one builds anticipation, while part two, to be released post-race, ensures emotional connection regardless of the outcome. It's smart marketing - but it's also sincere storytelling. Orchestrating Belief on Social Media In an era of oversaturation, Nike's social strategy for Breaking4 is a masterclass in digital minimalism and emotional precision. On Instagram, the brand has prioritized cinematic short-form clips that center Kipyegon's voice, not slogans - giving fans intimate glimpses of her training, her family, and her dream. On X (formerly Twitter), Nike has leaned into threaded storytelling, breaking down everything from the biomechanics of pacing to the cultural significance of the mile barrier. Meanwhile, across TikTok and YouTube Shorts, the focus is on micro-moments of awe - Kipyegon floating in the Fly Suit, slow-motion spikes crushing the track - designed for shares, not sales. Hashtags like #Breaking4, #FaithInFaith, and the echo of Kipchoge's mantra #NoHumanIsLimited have fostered a digital groundswell. Rather than blast every platform with the same message, Nike has tailored each channel to amplify a different emotional note, turning social media into an orchestral score for belief. YouTube as the Global Stage While Prime Video hosts the docuseries, YouTube is Nike's open-access arena - the platform where the brand is livestreaming the race and releasing cinematic trailers, athlete features, and behind-the-scenes content. The official Breaking4 Live stream is already scheduled on Nike's YouTube channel, positioning the platform as the digital stadium for a global audience. It's a smart move: YouTube offers reach, shareability, and real-time engagement - all critical for turning a one-hour race into a worldwide moment of belief. Science as a Supporting Character What may be the most innovative - and understated - component of Breaking4 is Nike's investment in mindset as a performance variable. The company is leveraging cutting-edge biometric data, performance psychology, and even digital twin modeling to help Kipyegon visualize success and condition her physiology to deliver it. Using heart rate variability, lactate thresholds, and predictive simulations, Nike's Applied Performance Innovation team has mapped a detailed strategy for race day. Rotating pacers, pacing lights on the track, optimal weather windows - nothing is left to chance. It's performance art informed by performance science. And it's also branding at its most human. By treating the athlete not as a billboard but as a collaborator, Nike transforms the role of sponsorship into one of empowerment. The brand isn't just behind Kipyegon - it's beside her. Marketing as Mythology: Redefining the Finish Line Nike has long operated at the intersection of sport and society, and with Breaking4, it is once again pushing the boundaries of what achievement looks like - and who gets to define it. For decades, the sub-four-minute mile has been a milestone reserved for men, with Roger Bannister's 1954 breakthrough often serving as shorthand for transcending limits. By staging Kipyegon's attempt with as much fanfare, science, and spectacle as Kipchoge's Breaking2, Nike sends a clear message: women's excellence is just as worthy of mythology. This kind of parity in marketing investment - from product to production to promotion - is still rare in sport. That Nike has committed to such an effort sets a new benchmark not only for athletics, but for how brands contribute to shaping public perception and possibility. The Business of Belief Whether or not Kipyegon breaks four minutes, Nike's campaign is already a success. It owns the conversation, deepens brand affinity, and reinforces its core positioning: daring to dream bigger, run faster, and break what was thought unbreakable. This is branding as belief architecture. Not just betting on the impossible - but building the infrastructure that makes it plausible. In a world where hype fades fast and meaning endures, Nike's Breaking4 reminds us that the most powerful stories are the ones that dare to redefine the limits. Faith Kipyegon isn't the only one making a moonshot. Nike is right there with her through Breaking4 - not chasing speed, but meaning. Together, they're not just racing the clock. They're rewriting it.
Fast Company
25 minutes ago
- Fast Company
In uncertain times, software buyers need the right balance of flexibility and predictability
In times of economic uncertainty—such as now —it's imperative that software leaders de-risk their pricing and contracts to assuage the fears and spending hesitation that many buyers might have. Specifically, software leaders need to balance predictability and flexibility. WHY BALANCING PREDICTABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY IS CRUCIAL During shaky economic circumstances, some software buyers seek more flexibility in pricing and contracts, whereas others place a greater emphasis on predictability. For instance, the owner of a newly-launched clothing retailer looking for a CMS might want the ability to scale up or down depending on their company's rate of growth. On the flip side, the owner of an established small business in the market for a new CMS might want to lock in steady pricing for the next year or so because they have a good idea of the company's annual growth rate. If the owner of the new clothing retailer is presented with a rigid pricing structure and contract, they'll likely feel they're about to get trapped. If the owner of the established small business isn't given the option to secure a guaranteed price for a given time, they'll likely feel exposed to cost hikes that could threaten their budget. Software teams need to cater to both of these types of customers. If they don't, buyers might delay purchases or walk away altogether to competitors who better meet their needs. Flexibility and predictability are two sides of the same coin for buyers and sellers. Consider analysis by Tropic, a spend management solution provider, that found that software vendors 'are increasingly accepting longer contract terms with the average contract length now 14.2 months, a 6% YoY increase. This is true particularly with enterprise-focused vendors, in exchange for pricing predictability and more favorable commercial terms.' Give a buyer a longer contract with a clearly defined pricing structure as a software executive, and you can have peace of mind that that revenue is coming in. Give a buyer more flexible terms, and you'll have a higher chance of converting them into a customer. Moreover, arguably, greater flexibility translates to software companies being able to retain customers longer (hence, increasing their customer lifetime value metrics). Software leaders can leverage different strategies to de-risk their pricing and contracts. At a foundational level, they should simplify their pricing models to reduce complexity for buyers. Simplicity is paramount. The faster buyers can understand a vendor's pricing model, the better. In tough economic times, people typically have less bandwidth to think through complicated pricing structures—they're trying to figure out how they can keep their jobs, how to increase their companies' chances of survival, how they're going to meet their budgets, and so forth. How can software leaders achieve simplicity in pricing? At the core, by reducing the number of licensing metrics (the basis by which a software company charges), revamping the packaging, and taking another look at SKUs. Generally, one metric and fewer packages and SKUs make pricing models easier to grasp. Moreover, when pricing is easy to understand, buyers are more likely to feel that they are being treated fairly and transparently. As far as contracts and renewal cycles, software leaders can consider offering one to three free months as an incentive. Free months push out renewals further into buyers' budget cycles, creating more predictability. When buyers do renew, they're actually using fewer dollars in that year. Software companies must also carefully evaluate how they're charging for generative AI (GenAI) capabilities. Pricing GenAI capabilities in software is a nuanced topic, but on a high level, software companies should not necessarily charge for them separately. Instead, they should bake those costs into the overall value that their solutions provide. Moreover, software companies should provide customers with more visibility and control over their consumption of highly variable features within their products, such as AI-powered ones. This greater visibility and control also protects software companies from having to absorb unnecessary costs. Software companies should also provide good-faith estimates and commit to making right-sizing adjustments for customers at the end of the year to account for uncertain usage during uncertain times. For example, despite running a beta program, a software company that rolls out GenAI features will likely not have an accurate understanding of consumption rates in year one because it only has, say, 10 customers using it, and it might decide to absorb more of the costs. But as the economy becomes more stable and the pool of customers leveraging GenAI features increases, the company could decide to absorb less, or none, of the costs—while being diligent about communicating that change and the reason for it to customers. Cohort-based strategies can be particularly valuable for right-sizing adjustments. For instance, a software company could offer a cohort consisting of buyers who sign up during an economically uncertain quarter greater flexibility on renewals. However, it could stipulate that a cohort of buyers who become customers during a more stable economic period would have more standard renewal contracts. The key to cohort-based strategies is to be consistent within a given cohort and avoid having multiple cohorts differ significantly. In de-risking their pricing strategies and reaching a balance between flexibility and predictability, software leaders should keep in mind that their pricing strategies must evolve alongside changes in the market, their solutions, customer expectations, and other factors. Software leaders should make a habit of proactively revisiting their pricing—and always aim for more simplicity. Simplicity in pricing is ultimately what protects software companies and buyers in good times and bad.
CNN
25 minutes ago
- CNN
BMI is BAD, a new study suggests. Here's a better way to measure weight
Food & health WellnessFacebookTweetLink Follow When it comes to measuring weight, BMI is the acronym everyone loves to hate. Health professionals have long used body mass index as a quick screening tool to fast-track certain patients into a 'code red' management plan — people whose weight puts them in danger of future health problems. The issue is that BMI measures health risk by calculating height and weight. However, muscle and bone weigh more than fat, so BMI measurements can overestimate the danger for people with a muscular build or a larger frame. Conversely, BMI can underestimate health concerns in older adults and anyone who has lost muscle, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. Now, authors of a new study say a different approach to weight measurement may be a more accurate way to predict future health issues. Bioelectrical impedance analysis, or BIA, uses undetectable electric currents to measure not only the percentage of body fat but also lean muscle mass and water weight. The technology works like this: You stand on metal plates on the machine while holding your hands or thumbs on another metal attachment held away from the body. Once started, the machine sends a weak electrical current through the body. Body fat, muscle and bone all have different electrical conductivity, so the machine uses algorithms to determine lean muscle mass, body fat percentage and water weight. 'We found body-fat percentage to be a stronger predictor of 15-year mortality risk in adults between the ages of 20 and 49 than BMI,' said Arch Mainous III, lead author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Annals of Family Medicine. When it came to deaths from heart disease, people with high body fat as measured by BIA were 262% times more likely to die than people who had a healthy percentage of body fat, said Mainous, a professor and vice chair of research in community health and family medicine at the University of Florida School of Medicine. 'Now remember, using BMI did not flag any risk at all in this younger population, which isn't one we typically consider to be at high risk for heart disease,' said senior author Dr. Frank Orlando, a clinical associate professor of community health and family medicine at University of Florida Health. 'Think of the interventions we can do to keep them healthy when we know this early. I think it's a game-changer for how we should look at body composition,' Orlando said. BMI is measured by dividing your weight by the square of your height. (If you are mathematically challenged like I am, the National Institutes of Health has a free calculator.) In BMI world, a body mass between 18.5 and 24.9 is a healthy weight, between 25 and 29.9 is overweight, between 30 and 34.9 is obese, between 35 and 39.9 is class 2 obesity, and anything greater than 40 is 'severe' or class 3 obesity. People are considered underweight if their BMI is lower than 18.5. Using BMI to measure health risk works — on a population level. Countless studies have shown that a greater BMI really does correlate with developing chronic diseases of all kinds — cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, kidney and liver disease, and more. Where BMI fails is at the patient level. Imagine a patient who is 'skinny fat' — thin on the outside but riddled with globs of fat wrapped around major organs on the inside. Your BMI would be fine even though your health was at risk. 'Those people are more likely to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, more likely to have elevated glucose, more likely to have elevated blood pressure, and more likely to have inflammation in general,' Mainous said. All of these health issues can be treated, stopped and in some cases even reversed if caught early enough, he added. While doctors are aware of the issues with BMI, many prefer it 'because it is cheap and easily put into practice,' Mainous said. 'They'd like to use a more direct measurement such as a DEXA scan, but those cost too much and are not widely available, so everyone falls back to the indirect measure of BMI.' DEXA stands for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and is the gold standard for body mass analysis. Such machines can cost between $45,000 and $80,000, so patients typically travel to a hospital or specialty center to get the scan, Orlando said. The cost to the patient can easily be $400 to $500 per scan, he said. 'However, we found the newer versions of bioelectrical impedance are pretty accurate, giving some valid and reliable results,' Orlando said. One note — at-home based bioelectrical impedance products are not nearly as accurate, said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver. 'They can be affected a lot by how much body fluid you have, how hydrated you are,' said Freeman, who was not involved with the new research. 'At-home measurements will only give a ballpark — the clinic-based machines are more precise.' The new study analyzed data on 4,252 men and women who participated in the 1999 to 2004 federal survey called NHANES, or the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a yearly checkup of the nation's health. Technicians measured each person's body composition, including height, weight and waist circumference. In addition, all participants underwent a clinic-based bioelectrical impedance analysis, which measures the body's resistance to electrical currents. Researchers then compared that data with the National Death Index through 2019 to see how many people died. After adjusting for age, race and poverty status, the study found a BMI that labeled someone as obese was not associated with a statistically significant higher risk of death from any cause, when compared with those in healthy BMI range. People with high body fat as measured by bioimpedance analysis, however, were 78% more likely to die from any cause, Mainous said. Measuring waist circumference was also helpful, but not as accurate as body mass. Add that to the 262% higher chance of dying from heart disease found by the study, and it's a no-brainer for doctors to use bioelectrical impedance analysis on patients, Orlando said. 'Let's face it, the magnitude of risk this study shows is enormous,' Freeman said. 'It's scary to think that we may have been using a surrogate — BMI — that may not have been all that accurate over the years.' The study shows how better weight measurements could easily become personalized medicine, Freeman added. 'Imagine you came into your doctor's office,' he said. 'They provided your body fat percentage and an individualized risk assessment. They talked to you about exercise and other lifestyle changes and referred you to a nutritionist. 'They gave you an opportunity to make these changes, and then if needed, helped you out with medication. If the medical profession did this and were able to save many more lives, that would be amazing.' Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being.
