Analyst Beefs Up Beam Therapeutics Price Target, Says 'Reward Is Now Skewed To Upside'

BMO Capital Markets has upgraded Beam Therapeutics Inc BEAM from Market Perform to Outperform and raised the price target from $61 to $66.
The analyst writes that it remained on the sidelines due to a lack of near-term stock-moving catalysts.
In the most recent earnings release, Beam said it is still working on enrolling its first patient for the trial, dubbed BEACON-101, by year-end.
The company announced in its Q3 update that it's pushing back plans to file an IND in 2022 for BEAM-102, another sickle cell gene therapy candidate.
But, the analyst's optimistic view is driven by the high potential of base editing technology and reflected in the fact that Verve Therapeutics Inc VERV (uses Beam's base editing technology) has been BMO's pick.
In 2023, two key catalysts from Beam's partner Verve are expected to drive upside in BEAM, while incremental updates from Beam's pipeline programs and/ or new partnership announcements can also drive BEAM higher.
Beam's strong-cash position (around $1.1 billion) enables pipeline advancement and clinical derisking of its platform.
Price Action: BEAM shares are up 2.50% at $41.10 on the last check Tuesday.

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