NEW YORK – Investment bank Craig-Hallum on Friday initiated coverage of spatial biology firm Akoya Biosciences with a Buy rating and a $7.50 price target.
In a note to investors, Craig-Hallum analyst Bill Bonello wrote that the bank believes Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Akoya "is at the front end of a significant product adoption cycle" and has the potential to become a $500 million revenue company in five years.
Bonello noted the company's installed base of more than 1,200 instruments, many of which he said are used in biomarker discovery work that should "drive downstream translational work to validate these markers for use in clinical trials and even clinical diagnostics."
He also cited the company's growing CRO business as well as its efforts to develop clinical assays via partnerships with Acrivon and NeraCare. Additionally, Bonello noted the instrument upgrades Akoya released in late 2023, which make them "significantly more powerful and easy to use."
Looking at the spatial biology market more broadly, Bonello pointed to the expansion of spatial imaging beyond the discovery space and into translational and clinical research, adding that the bank expects that "spatial phenotyping will be widely adopted across academic and pharma research labs, CROs, and clinical laboratories."
He wrote that with the largest installed base of spatial imaging instruments for translational and clinical research and diagnostics, Akoya is well positioned to benefit from this trend.
Last month, Akoya reported a 14 percent year-over-year decline in first quarter revenues, primarily due to weakness in instrument placements.
In Friday morning trading on the Nasdaq, Akoya shares were up 9 percent to $2.42.