Piper Jaffray Downgrades Sangamo BioSciences (SGMO) to Neutral

Piper Jaffray downgraded Sangamo BioSciences (NASDAQ: SGMO) from Overweight to Neutral with a price target of $5.00 (from $9.00).

Analyst Charles Duncan commented, "This morning Sangamo announced the departure of its EVP of R&D and shares are trading off. This comes after several challenges in the development pipeline and delays to timelines, as recently as August. Today’s news highlights to us that, with the CEO change earlier this year, we lack visibility on Sangamo’s focus and milestones for the next 12+ months. That said, we continue to believe the company has been a leader in gene editing and therapy to-date, and continues to have a differentiated and largely proprietary platform technology with potential broad applicability – so maybe the change in leadership is a long term positive. However, likely course correction will not be immediate and thus we are stepping to the sidelines with a Neutral rating until we see evidence of focused clinical progress and execution from an emerging pipeline."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Sangamo BioSciences click here. For more ratings news on Sangamo BioSciences click here.

Shares of Sangamo BioSciences closed at $3.90 yesterday.

You May Also Be Interested In

• JPMorgan Downgrades Monster Beverage (MNST) to Neutral, 'Cost Pressures and Weaker Low-end Consumer'
• BOK Financial (BOKF) PT Raised to $100 at Citi, 'limited relative upside over the near term'
• Boeing (BA) PT Lowered to $224 at Citi