Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE.Q -25.00%) is an underappreciated coronavirus stock loaded with potential. So loaded, it's poised to double and then some in value.
That's the opinion of one analyst tracking the stock, Mayank Mamtani of B. Riley Securities. Friday morning, B. Riley initiated coverage of the biotech company, tagging it with a buy rating at a price target of $26 per share.
Sorrento has received considerable attention from investors and biotech industry observers for its efforts to combat the coronavirus. Many are keeping an eye on the company's COVI-MSC experimental stem cell therapy that targets COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Encouragingly, on Wednesday Sorrento reported quite positive results from a phase 1b study of COVI-MSC.
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While that's a win for the company (albeit only from limited, early stage testing) Mamtani's enthusiastic recommendation is based not only on its coronavirus efforts. He is also impressed with Sorrento's other products in development, which include therapies covering such disparate uses as non-opioid pain relief and immunotherapy, a very active and promising area of biotech at the moment.
These latter development efforts mean that Sorrento is not a one-trick pony. Even if its coronavirus ambitions fall flat -- and they still might, because after all COVI-MSC was put through its paces in a small, early stage trial -- the company has others to fall back on. This, Mamtani wrote in his research note on the stock, makes it "well positioned for success."
The analyst's bullish take added to recent optimism on Sorrento following those COVI-MSC results. On Friday, the company's stock rose by 3.5%, sharply contrasting with the 1.9% decline of the S&P 500 index.
