AVLN Avalyn Pharma Inc.

$AVLN Raymond James started coverage Friday with an Outperform and a 60 target, the seventh firm on a five-month-old IPO. Consensus sits at Moderate Buy with a 60 average target, more than double Friday's 28.13 close. The street is pricing this as de-risked: Avalyn isn't inventing molecules, it's reformulating the only two approved antifibrotics (Roche's Esbriet, BI's Ofev) as inhaled versions, aiming to put more drug in the lung and dodge the GI and photosensitivity side effects that keep patients off the pills. But the first hard data is a year out. Phase 2b MIST of AP01 (inhaled pirfenidone) randomized 398 progressive pulmonary fibrosis patients, with topline due H2 2027; AP02 (inhaled nintedanib) reads late 2027. September hinted at how the company is thinking about the next step: it added a former FDA pulmonary division director to the board. That's a Phase 3 prep hire, not a science hire. Cash supports the wait: 413.5M on hand funds operations into 2029.