Chardan Capital Markets initiated coverage on Cargo Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRGX ) stock on Monday with a Buy rating and a $28.00 price target. The company highlighted the company’s promising CAR-T product candidates and experienced management team as key drivers of the positive outlook.
Cargo Therapeutics’ lead asset, firi-cel, an autologous CD22 CAR-T therapy, showed encouraging results in Phase I trials in large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) result.
The company is currently conducting a Phase II LBCL study of firi-cel, which is considered potentially pivotal, with results expected in the first half of 2025.
The study focused on patients already treated with CD19 CAR-T, a group expected to expand as CAR-T therapy becomes more frequently used in earlier treatment lines. Additionally, plans are currently underway to evaluate firi-cel in patients who have not previously received CAR-T therapy.
Cargo Therapeutics is also developing technology to overcome current limitations of CAR-T efficacy. One such technology includes a CD2 costimulatory domain designed to bypass drug resistance caused by the loss of CD58 on tumor cells.
The other is the STASH platform, which aims to facilitate the engineering of multi-component CAR-Ts that can carry additional transgenes to enhance their persistence or localization in the body.
In addition, the company’s second CAR-T product candidate, CRG-023, utilizes CD2 technology and is a tricistronic therapy targeting CD19, CD20 and CD22, aiming to solve the problem of drug resistance caused by target loss.
CRG-023 is in the IND-supported study phase, and Chardan Capital Markets expects the stock price to have upside potential as the development strategy becomes clearer.
In other recent news, Cargo Therapeutics has made significant progress in its operations. The company has received gross proceeds of approximately $110 million from successful private equity investment (PIPE) financings. The funds are earmarked to prepare a Biologics License Application (BLA) for its Phase 2 study, FIRCE-1, and to further develop its CRG-023 program.
Piper Sandler has initiated coverage of Cargo Therapeutics’ stock with an “overweight” rating and a price target of $37. The optimistic outlook is based on promising data from early-stage clinical trials of CRG-022, Cargo’s investigational therapy for certain types of lymphoma. Meanwhile, Truist Securities raised its price target on Cargo Therapeutics to $32 from $34, maintaining a buy rating on the stock.
On the personnel front, Cargo Therapeutics recently announced the appointment of Dr. Kapil Dhingra, a medical oncologist with more than 25 years of experience, as a member of the board of directors.
The appointment comes as the company advances its leading CAR T cell therapy candidate, firi-cel (CRG-022). These are the latest developments for Cargo Therapeutics, which continues to focus on developing next-generation cell therapies for cancer treatment.
Investment Professional Insights
As Cargo Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRGX ) advances its CAR-T product candidates, investors may find the company’s financial health and market performance to be crucial considerations. CRGX has a market capitalization of $704.9 million and a price-to-book ratio of 1.89 for the trailing 12 months through the first quarter of 2024, according to real-time data from InvestingPro. This suggests that the company’s stock is trading close to its book value, which may be of interest to value investors. However, the company’s price-to-earnings ratio (adjusted) for the same period was -5.82, reflecting market expectations for future profitability challenges.
InvestingPro Tips reveals CRGX’s financial picture is mixed. On the one hand, the company holds more cash than debt, providing some financial stability, and its liquid assets exceed short-term debt, which is reassuring for its short-term financial health. On the other hand, the company is burning through cash rapidly and its gross profit margin is weak. Analysts don’t expect CRGX to be profitable this year, with net profits expected to decline. Additionally, the company hasn’t made a profit in the last twelve months and doesn’t pay a dividend to shareholders, which could scare off income-focused investors.
For those looking to delve deeper into Cargo Therapeutics’ financial and strategic positioning, there are more InvestingPro Tips available that can provide further insight into the company’s prospects and performance. Interested readers can use the discount code PRONEWS24 Enjoy up to 10% discount on annual Pro and annual or two-year Pro+ subscriptions and gain access to a comprehensive range of analytical tools and data points to inform investment decisions.
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