What happened
Shares of Bionano Genomics (BNGO -1.46%) furthered their recent gains on Monday. By the close of trading, the genome analysis company's stock price was up 28.4%.
So what
Bullish analyst remarks have likely contributed to Bionano's recent ascent. Maxim analyst Jason McCarthy reiterated his buy rating on Bionano's shares and boosted his price forecast sevenfold -- from $2 to $14 -- on Friday.
Bionano Genomics stock rose sharply in recent days. Image source: Getty Images.
McCarthy believes the recent Next-Generation Cytogenomics Symposium -- during which doctors and scientists highlighted the impressive capabilities of its Saphyr optical genome mapping (OGM) system -- helped to demonstrate the "important role" Bionano could serve in the healthcare industry. "Awareness, adoption, and messaging in 2019 and 2020 culminated with a cytogenetics symposium that has opened the eyes of the genomics world to Saphyr, in our view," McCarthy said.
Now what
McCarthy expects rising awareness of Saphyr among doctors to fuel adoption and, in turn, Bionano's sales growth. He believes Bionano can maximize its profit opportunity with Saphyr by developing more tests for genetic disorders and other areas, such as prenatal screening.
Doing so should be more possible now that Bionano has bolstered its cash reserves in recent weeks. Management smartly chose to take advantage of the stock's torrid gains to raise roughly $330 million via share sales, which Bionano can now use to fund its research and development efforts.
