Cytokinetics Surges Amid Roth Capital Rasing Its Price Target

Shares of Cytokinetics, Inc. CYTK surged 16 percent Wednesday following Roth Capital raising its price target on the company from $13 to $18.

The analyst note cited four facets for its strengthened investment case:

1) "CYTK has shown its prowess in attracting significant partnerships in the form of both Amgen and Astellas,"

2) "each of these partners have approximately the same equity stake in CYTK as well,
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3) "a regulatory path forward for tirasemtiv for ALS is expected in the near term and, importantly,
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4) "the company has a strong financial footing with 2-3 years of cash on hand with the recently expanded Astellas collaboration (~$150 million pro forma cash)."

Analyst Joseph Pantginis concluded, “While the final trial design for a pivotal study has not yet been agreed upon with the FDA and EMEA, the trial design will likely contain and adaptive design as well as important interim analyses. This should allow CYTK to "titrate" their spending on the ALS study on an "as needed basis".”

Cytokinetics recently traded at $8.03, up 16.4 percent.