Morphic downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital

BMO Capital downgraded Morphic (MORF) to Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $57, up from $52 after the company’s announcement of a proposed acquisition by Eli Lilly (LLY) at $57 per share. The firm anticipates “relatively few risks” to the deal closing given Morphic’s limited overlap to Eli Lilly’s current pipeline, and while Lilly’s recently acquired Dice Therapeutics has ongoing discovery work to devel oral a4B7 assets, this is likely too early to impact closing, the analyst tells investors in a research note.