FATE - Fate faces slew of analyst downgrades after J&J's Janssen unit ends agreement

• Fate Therapeutics ( NASDAQ: FATE ), which saw it shares plummet in after-hours trading Thursday, is facing a multitude of analyst downgrades after a collaboration agreement with Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) unit Janssen was ended.
• In early Friday afternoon trading, Fate ( FATE ) is down 62% .
• Wedbush's David Nierengarten cut his rating to neutral from outperform and lowered his target price to $7 from $42 (~36% downside based on Thursday's close).
• "We note that the remaining clinical-stage programs are both early stage and in highly competitive spaces that already include two approved CAR-T products in [multiple myeloma] and four approved CAR-T products in B-cell lymphomas," he wrote.
• Cowen cut its rating to market perform from outperform citing the lack of near-term catalysts and pipeline reset.
• BofA Securities analyst Tazeen Ahmad gave Fate ( FATE ) a double downgrade to underperform. She also cut her target price to $4 from $72 (~64% downside).
• Ahmad will look to pipeline updates expected later this year for color on the path forward for the company's early-stage assets.

For further details see: