Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (INO)

[Lakers_w]

1/21/22 BofA analyst Geoff Meacham upgraded Inovio to Neutral from Underperform with a price target of $10, up from $8. The analyst cites the stock's recent weakness and contends that the majority of remaining COVID-19 value has been removed from valuation following the recent 18% year-to-date pullback. Meacham adds that Inovio's commercial outlook for its COVID-19 vaccine has not changed, and the data generated from the program has demonstrated a favorable safety-profile and robust efficacy.

The Inovio Pharmaceuticals Thesis: While the stock has shed 18% year to date, data generated from the COVID-19 program seems to suggest “a favorable safety profile and robust efficacy,” which “bolsters our confidence in Inovio’s DNA vaccine platform,” Meacham said in the upgrade note.

“And while we think the emergence of C-19 variants has kept investors acutely focused on INO-4800, we expect interest to return to the non-C-19 pipeline in 2022, which we believe has more attractive opportunities,” the analyst wrote.

“In fact, we think VGX-3100 (HPV program) and INO-5401 (GBM program) will be the main value drivers for Inovio moving forward, and while we don’t expect any catalysts for these programs in 1H22, we expect readouts for INO-4500 in Lassa fever and INO-3107 in RRP in 1H22 to further de-risk the platform and add momentum to the story,” he added.