Cogent Biosciences gets Piper Sandler nod on Kiq acquisition

 

• Cogent Biosciences (NASDAQ:COGT) is up +3.8% after Piper Sandler initiated the coverage with an overweight rating on the stock. The price target at $22 per share is +80.3% to yesterday’s close.
• Noting that the ‘risk/reward now meaningfully skews to the upside after the company’s acquisition of Kiq LLC and the divestment of its cell therapy assets’, the analyst Christopher Raymond terms the newly-added clinical-stage compound PLX9486 as 'a potent and selective KIT inhibitor’ that could become the standard of care for indolent systemic mastocytosis.'
• In August, Cogent, previously-known as Unum Therapeutics, announced the acquisition of the privately-held Kiq, in an all-stock deal.
• Raymond thinks PLX9486 could also become a treatment option in the advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor, for which Blueprint Medicines (NASDAQ:BPMC) received conditional marketing authorization in Europe for its kinase inhibitor, AYVAKYT® (avapritinib) in September.
• Observing a more favorable safety profile of PLX9486 compared to avapritinib, the analyst highlights a ‘sizeable valuation gap’ between Cogent and the market opportunity for Blueprint in systemic mastocytosis.
• As the graph shows, Cogent has climbed +323.5% in the year so far, prompting Seeking Alpha contributor, Busted IPO Forum, to write a neutral thesis on the stock arguing ‘once its convertible preferred is factored into the algebra, it only has ~$0.62 a share in cash.’
• https://seekingalpha.com/news/3647018-cogent-biosciences-gets-piper-sandler-nod-on-kiq-acquisition