Editas Medicine Falls as Goldman Sachs Initiates the Stock at Sell

Editas Medicine Falls as Goldman Sachs Initiates the Stock at Sell

Editas Medicine  (EDIT) - Get Report dropped Friday after analysts at Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on shares off the company with a sell rating and a price target of $20 a share, a Wall Street low. 

The firm said the risk-reward dynamic was skewed negatively for the clinical stage genome editing company. 

Initial results from the company's experimental Crispr gene editing product EDIT-11 in a rare eye disease may not generate enough productive editing to meaningfully improve patients' vision, analyst Madhu Kumar said in his note initiating coverage on the stock.

Editas shares dropped 12% to $36 a share Friday.

Read More: Gene Editing Emerges From the Lab

Also weighing on the company was competition from ProQR Therapeutics for treatment of the disease known as Leber's congenital amaurosis. 

Kumar was more bullish on Apellis Pharmaceuticals  (APLS) - Get Report and Dicerna Pharmaceuticals  (DRNA) - Get Report which were both given buy ratings. Apellis has a $130 price target and Dicerna was given a $48 price target; both are Wall Street highs. 

The firm expects mergers and acquisitions to be selective in the industry in the near-term due to lingering questions around current high valuations. 

Gene editing has been in the spotlight in 2021 after Cathie Wood, the founder of ARK Investment