Nkarta price target raised to $31 from $9 at Mizuho

Mizuho raised the firm’s price target on Nkarta to $31 from $9 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst updated the model ahead of the company’s Q4 earnings report citing the sector’s recent attention to the cell therapy autoimmune landscape. The firm believes Nkarta’s story has largely benefited by this shift given its CD19 CAR NK program in lupus nephritis. Mizuho raised its probability of sucess for NKX019 from 5% to 20%, in light of the “accumulating recent scientific evidence supportive” of the clinical potential of anti-CD19 cell therapies in autoimmune disease.