CELU - Celularity falls as Morgan Stanley downgrades after strategic update

Celularity ( NASDAQ: CELU ) shares lost ~2% pre-market Monday after Morgan Stanley downgraded the cell therapy developer to Underweight from Equal Weight, citing the company’s recent strategic update.

The analyst Jeffrey Hung notes that after a strategic review of its 2023 programs, Celularity ( CELU ) announced plans to discontinue two pipeline programs and informed a “substantial portion” of its employees that their jobs were at stake.

“We had a chance to speak with management, who emphasized expectations for continued growth of its biomaterials products business unit and additional strategic partnerships for its therapeutics programs,” the analyst wrote.

Despite positive views on the company’s biomaterials business, Hung downgrades Celularity ( CELU ), citing a potential underperformance of the stock compared to other names in its coverage due to insufficient catalysts.

However, the analyst notes that the company will announce additional partnerships for its biomaterials products business and drugs programs that “could be further accretive to shares.”

However, dropping the two discontinued programs in its model, Morgan Stanley slashes Celularity ( CELU ) price target to $1 from $5 per share.

Until Morgan Stanley’s downgrade, Celularity ( CELU ) had no Sell ratings on Wall Street.

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