UPDATE: Stifel Initiates Coverage on Dicerna Pharmaceuticals on Riding the RNAi Wave

In a report published Monday, Stifel analyst Stephen Willey initiated coverage on

with a Buy rating and $53.00 price target. In the report, Stifel noted, “We are initiating coverage on shares of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc. (DRNA) with a Buy rating on the shares and a 12-month target price of $53. We believe Dicerna's proprietary approach to harnessing the therapeutic potential of RNA interference (RNAi) provides long-term oriented investors with exposure to a best-in-class iteration of an emerging treatment modality that has generated considerable enthusiasm among investors given its ability to meaningfully expand the universe of druggable targets and rapidly generate proof-of-concept data in genetically-defined (and often rare) diseases – the latter of which has driven significant step-ups in peer valuations given the correlation to longer-term improvements in patient outcomes is often uniquely high. "We believe the combination of an early-stage pipeline that nicely balances the aforementioned types of indications (i.e., DCR-PH1) with optionality into substantially-larger market opportunities via candidates targeting well-established oncogenes (MYC, KRAS) relevant across multiple solid tumor types – the entirety of which remains unconstrained on the delivery front – creates an attractive risk/reward profile at these levels.” Dicerna Pharmaceuticals closed on Friday at $39.50.