Maintaining Hold on Jasper: Awaiting Critical BEACON CSU Data to Resolve Clinical and Execution Uncertainty

William Blair analyst Matt Phipps has reiterated their neutral stance on JSPR stock, giving a Hold rating on December 30.

Matt Phipps has given his Hold rating due to a combination of factors related to both clinical uncertainty and potential upside. He notes that the upcoming BEACON study update for briquilimab in chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is critical, with investor attention centered on the magnitude of UAS7 score improvements and the proportion of patients achieving complete remission by week 12. In his view, briquilimab would need to show roughly mid‑20s point reductions in UAS7 and at least about half of patients reaching full symptom control to restore confidence and justify advancing to a Phase IIb trial in 2026. Because prior concerns around possible manufacturing batch issues or mis-targeted patient enrollment led him to move the rating to Market Perform in mid‑2025, he is waiting for clearer validation of both the drug’s performance and trial execution.

At the same time, Phipps acknowledges that if the new data demonstrate competitive efficacy and safety relative to barzolvolimab and other agents, Jasper could experience meaningful share price appreciation from current levels. He highlights that a strong and clean dataset, combined with better assurance that Jasper can consistently enroll the right CSU patient population, could help close the notable valuation gap with peer Celldex. However, until those data are available and these execution risks are reduced, the balance of risk and reward does not yet support a more aggressive stance. As a result, he maintains a Hold recommendation, positioning investors to reassess after the BEACON update and management’s ability to navigate these clinical and operational challenges becomes clearer.

Phipps covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as Incyte, Evommune, Inc., and Bristol-Myers Squibb. According to TipRanks, Phipps has an average return of 5.8% and a 50.14% success rate on recommended stocks.

In another report released on December 30, TipRanks – OpenAI also upgraded the stock to a Hold with a $1.50 price target.