NEW YORK - Investment bank Canaccord Genuity on Thursday initiated coverage of spatial biology company NanoString Technologies with a Buy rating and a price target of $50 per share.
"In our view, NSTG has been instrumental in increasing the awareness of spatial biology among researchers and investors," Canaccord analyst Kyle Mikson wrote in a research note. "At current levels, we believe NSTG shares offer compelling upside potential."
NanoString currently offers the GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP) platform, which is suited for both the translational and discovery markets with its nCounter and next-generation sequencing readouts, respectively, Mikson said, adding that he thinks the GeoMx business "should continue its solid momentum and drive growth."
He also noted that NanoString's legacy nCounter gene expression analysis platform, launched in 2008, has been "a relatively solid product line" and "provides a stable (albeit modest) baseline for growth." Although COVID has recently been a headwind to nCounter utilization, he believes the business is "poised to rebound" as these issues subside.
Importantly, the company's upcoming launch of its CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager (SMI) later this year, which offers single-cell and subcellular spatial resolution, "will meaningfully expand NSTG's market penetration," he wrote, and be "a major catalyst given the compelling growth dynamic and complementary product line this milestone should add."
NanoString went public in June 2013. In morning trading on the Nasdaq, the firm's shares were up 2 percent at $33.04.