BTIG Starts MacroGenics At Buy, Sees 63% Upside

BTIG Research's Dane Leone initiated coverage on a cancer treatment and infectious disease biotech company Thursday afternoon, MacroGenics Inc (NASDAQ: MGNX).

The analyst set a Buy rating and $35 price target, representing potential upside of about 63 percent from the stock's close.

Leone said MacroGenics is a "must-own" stock at current levels, considering the company's "discount on bi-specific platform plus enoblituzumab data."

Even with the company's clinical catalysts being largely back-end loaded this year, he iterated valuation offers "attractive opportunity on the long side for three key reasons:

• The substantial stock discount of the current enterprise value when compared to the potential payments from multiple partnerships across the DART platform,
• Presentation of the Enoblituzumab Phase I data during late 2016 should help bridge news flow into Margetuximab updates during 1H2017, and
• Our NPV analysis of current clinical programs could significantly increase as the B7-H3 data warrants incorporation of Enoblituzumab and/or MGD009."

Shares of MacroGenics closed Thursday at $20.32, down 5.1 percent.