What happened

Shares of the clinical-stage gene therapy company Tenaya Therapeutics (TNYA +0.15%) rose by a staggering 49% over the first three and a half days of trading this week, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The biotech's shares caught fire in response to a wave of bargain buying in biotech, sparked by the buyouts of BELLUS Health and Prometheus Biosciences for enormous premiums earlier this week. 

So what

Tenaya is an early-stage gene therapy player focusing on the development of treatments for heart disease. Recently, the company won an approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin a phase 1b trial for TN-201 as a potential treatment for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) caused by mutations in the MYBPC3 gene. This mutation is the most common genetic cause of HCM, according to the company.

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NASDAQ: TNYA

Tenaya Therapeutics

Today's Change

(0.15%) $0.00

Current Price

$0.82

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$177MMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.

Day's Range

$0.77 - $0.83

52wk Range

$0.53 - $2.35

Volume

1.6M

Avg Vol

3.7M

Gross Margin

-325022.22%

Wall Street analysts are expecting big things from the small-cap gene therapy company. Underscoring this point, the consensus 12-month price target on Tenaya's stock implies an upside potential of 370% from current levels. With this bargain proposition in mind, it's not surprising to see shares perk up as investors hunt for deals in the out-of-favor biotech space. 

Now what

Is Tenaya stock still a buy? It all depends on your comfort with risk. It is far from the first biotech to try to use a gene therapy to treat various forms of heart disease. So far, though, this cutting-edge approach hasn't yielded much in the way of positive results.

That doesn't mean that Tenaya can't succeed where others have failed, but this is a high-risk growth play to be sure.