NEW YORK—Analysts issued bullish comments Wednesday on Xtent Inc., after the medical device company released positive data on one of its stents.
Follow-up data on the Menlo Park, Calif., company's Custom NX drug-coated stent was presented Tuesday at the EuroPCR meeting in Spain. The CUSTOM III trials showed that at the end of 30 days, the rate of major adverse cardiac events in patients with up to two lesions fitted with the stent was just 2.2 percent.
Stents are mesh-metal tubes used to prop open clogged arteries after they have been cleared of plaque. Xtent CEO Gregory D. Casciaro said the CUSTOM III results mirrored those seen in two earlier trials.
Lazard Capital Markets analyst Assaf Guterman said that the data is positive compared with other drug-coated stents on the market. Xtent's stents differ from others on the market in that doctors can customize the length and diameter of the device.
Guterman added that Xtent has guided for European approval in the second half of the year, with pivotal trial enrollment in the U.S. also in the latter half. He rates Xtent shares a "Buy" with a $12 price target.
Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Thomas J. Gunderson is also bullish on Xtent with a "Buy" rating and $10 price target.
"We continue to believe the Custom NX stent system could revolutionize the use of drug-eluting stents by addressing key issues inherent in the current generation of stents," he wrote.
