What happened
Allakos (ALLK 3.42%) finished the trading week in style, with its stock price climbing by just under 9% on Friday. That was largely due to an analyst recommendation upgrade, which, in turn, was encouraged by strong quarterly results posted by the company. In contrast to Allakos' big gain on the day, the S&P 500 index slumped by almost 0.2%.
So what
The prognosticator getting notably more bullish on Allakos was Jefferies' Maury Raycroft, who upped his recommendation on the clinical-stage biotech's stock to buy from his previous hold. He also made a considerable (50%) raise to his target price, hiking it from $6 per share to $9.
Raycroft is particularly encouraged by the upcoming readout of a phase 2b clinical trial of Allakos' lirentelimab investigational drug. The medication is being tested for efficacy in treating chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), an ailment in which hives are produced and vanish seemingly randomly on the body.
The analyst's take came several days after Allakos published its first-quarter results, which included a brief clinical and business update. Regarding the CSU study, the company said it anticipates reporting top-line data from it in the second half of this year but did not get more specific.
Now what
There were other encouraging aspects to the Allakos earnings report/update. One was the pre-revenue company's bottom line, which showed a much narrower net loss than in the same period last year. This came in at just over $42 million, representing quite an improvement over first-quarter 2022's more than $197 million shortfall.
