Wedbush is extremely bullish on XOMA (NASDAQ:XOMA), seeing an upside of 135 percent after they raised about $28.8 million via an At Market (ATM) Issuance.
The sale has been going on since October, but Wedbush said they believe the majority of the sales has come over the last several days when the stock trading in a range of $4.50 and $7.50. The average selling price is estimated at $4.41 a share.
Much of recent investor awareness of the company and its acceleration have come from first quarter 2011 clinical catalysts. The company is up over 100 percent since December 21st.
Along with cash at the end of the year reaching about $36 to $38 million, XOMA also seems to be doing a better job of managing expenses, as the prior burn rate of $15 million a quarter appears to be down to $12 to $14 million.
The major catalyst is the release of top-line three month HbA1c data from the Phase 2a study of XOMA-052 in Type 2 diabetes, which should happen in the early part of January.
After that, the data from the Phase 2b trial should be another catalyst, which will come in the latter part of the first quarter.
Wedbush also said the cash raised should help XOMA negotiate a partnership for XOMA-052
A possible partnership for XOMA-052 and licensing deals are considered the important, probable catalysts of 2011 for XOMA.
Wedbush keeps their "Outperform" rating on XOMA, which was trading at $5.68, gaining $0.58, or 11.37 percent, as of 12:19 PM EST. Wedbush has a price target of $12 on XOMA.
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