Citi sees opportunity in Fate Therapeutics shares with ‘damage done’

Citi analyst Yigal Nochomovitz lowered the firm’s price target on Fate Therapeutics to $9 from $80 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. With the shares down 60% following Fate’s announced pipeline prioritization and Janssen termination, the “damage has largely been done and there is an opportunity for value-based, longer-term investors to step in,” Nochomovitz tells investors in a research note. Given its cash position of $475M, at the current $400M valuation, one must believe the company’s entire technology platform has zero or near-zero value, “and we do not agree with this assessment,” writes the analyst. Nochomovitz believes biotech “remains in many respects a bargain hunter’s market, and FATE now fits very well into that framework.”