ALLO - Allogene stock rises as Goldman ups rating to Buy on way forward for cancer programs

Allogene Therapeutics ( NASDAQ: ALLO ) stock rose ~9% premarket July 15 after Goldman Sachs upgrade the stock to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $32, from $9.

The SA Quant Rating on ALLO is Hold , which takes into account factors such as growth and profitability, among others things. The rating is in contrast to the average Wall Street Analysts' Rating of Buy , wherein 9 out of 19 analysts give it a Strong Buy rating.

Goldman Analyst Salveen Richter expects a period of execution on lead allogeneic CAR T programs ALLO-501A and ALLO-715.

The company had said that it planned to start phase 2 trial of ALLO-501A in relapsed/refractory large B cell lymphoma by mid-2022.

The analyst noted that the FDA alignment on and the start of the studies in mid-2022 pave a path towards approval.

In January, the FDA had lifted a clinical hold, which was placed in October 2021, on all five of its AlloCAR T clinical trials based on a report of a chromosomal abnormality detected post-AlloCAR T administration in a single patient treated with ALLO-501A in a trial called ALPHA2.

For ALLO-715 in recurrent/refractory multiple myeloma the analyst noted that the firm expects clarity on the way ahead by end of 2022 as per longer-term follow-up monotherapy data and consolidation dosing, combo approach with SpringWorks Therapeutics' nirogacestat, and TurboCAR technology.

For ALLO-501A the analyst expects a best-in-class profile, and for ALLO-715 an in-line profile with Bristol Myers Squibb and 2seventy bio's Abecma.

Separately, the analyst added that first data from a phase 1 trial called TRAVERSE of ALLO-316 in kidney cancer in 2023 could unlock the solid tumor vertical.

YTD, the stock has declined over -22%. The chart below shows YTD price-return performance of ALLO and some peers, against SPY:

ALLO +8.85% to $12.91 premarket July 15

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