With Citigroup analyst Samantha Semenkow calling on Feb. 29 for shares of Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT) to rise from their current price near $10 to reach $16 -- an increase of 45% over her prior estimate -- there's a clear consensus about the stock forming on Wall Street. Based on Semenkow's price target, which is effectively the same as the consensus average price target across analysts following the stock, Editas Medicine is looking at a 70% bump.

It could happen. Here's why.

Per Editas' fourth-quarter earnings report, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now on board with the company's proposal to run its lead program, reni-cel, as a combined phase 1/2/3 clinical trial. Reni-cel is a gene therapy being developed to treat rare blood disorders sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta thalassemia, and it's intended to be curative or near-curative, just like the therapies recently commercialized by other gene editing companies like CRISPR Therapeutics and Bluebird Bio.

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Source Fool.com