One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$5.21 our estimate vs market $1.47
Wall Street consensus: $5.33 (2.2% higher than our fair-value estimate)
72% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Cellectis S.A.
CLLS · NGM · Healthcare · Biotechnology
Current price
$1.47
52-week range
$1.25 - $5.48
Market cap
$148.06M
Balance sheet
Healthy
-4.08x Concerning
Net cash $86.34M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
2 Rewards
2 Risks
2 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 75.8% last year.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 1/10 years.
- Risk Return on equity was -94.5% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 0.0% (peer median: 8.0%).
What this company does
Cellectis S.A.
Cellectis is a biotechnology company that develops potential cancer treatments using gene-editing, a technique that changes a cell's DNA to help the body fight disease. Because its products are still in the testing phase, known as clinical trials, and are not yet approved for sale, the company's money comes from investors and partners who fund its research. The company's success will depend on whether its experimental therapies for cancers like leukemia and lymphoma are eventually approved and sold to patients.
How the company got here
Cellectis was founded in France in 1999 as a gene-editing company, initially using a technology that became outdated. Facing financial trouble, the company reinvented itself around 2014, focusing on a promising new cancer treatment called CAR-T therapy. This new direction led to major partnerships and a listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange, raising significant funds. However, in a major strategic shift in late 2026, the company decided to pivot again, moving away from its main cancer therapy programs to focus on a different kind of gene editing that works directly inside the body.
What it actually does
Cellectis is a biotechnology company that specializes in gene editing, which is like using molecular scissors to make precise changes to an organism's DNA. This can be used to fix faulty genes that cause diseases or to give cells new abilities, such as fighting cancer. For years, their main effort was reprogramming immune cells from healthy donors to create 'off-the-shelf' cancer treatments. Now, their primary focus is on developing 'in vivo' (meaning 'in the body') therapies, where the gene editing happens directly inside a patient to treat chronic diseases.
In Vivo Gene Editing Therapies
This is the company's new core business, where it is investing its own resources. Instead of taking cells out of the body to edit them, these therapies are designed to be given to a patient to make genetic changes directly inside their body. The company is initially targeting chronic metabolic diseases, such as severe high cholesterol and high triglycerides (a type of fat in your blood). The goal is to create a one-time treatment that could provide a long-lasting fix for these conditions, which currently require lifelong management.
Strategic Partnerships and Licensing
A major part of Cellectis's business involves partnering with large pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca and Servier. In these arrangements, Cellectis provides its gene-editing technology and expertise to its partners, who then develop new therapies. Cellectis gets paid through a combination of upfront fees, milestone payments (lump sums paid when a research goal is met), and potential royalties (a percentage of future sales if a drug is successful). This is a key way the company generates revenue (money from its business activities) and validates its technology without having to pay for the entire expensive drug development process itself.
What management is betting on now
Management has made a big bet on the future of 'in vivo' gene editing for chronic diseases. They recently stopped internal development of their most advanced cancer therapies because of increased competition and a more difficult path to getting them approved and sold. The new strategy is to focus on creating one-time genetic medicines for conditions like heart disease, which they believe is a better use of their technology and financial resources. This major pivot is intended to extend the company's cash runway (the amount of time it can fund its operations before needing more money) into 2028.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $5.21 vs current price $1.47
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $5.33 (2.2% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $5.21 a share — about 254.5% above today's price of $1.47, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net cash $86.3M - more cash than debt. Interest coverage -4.1x.
Net debt
$-86.34M
Interest coverage
-4.08x
Cellectis S.A.'s profit covers its interest bill about 0.0 times over. which is weaker than most peers shown here and 4 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
CLLS
BASELINE
Cellectis S.A.
Total debt $80.35M Interest coverage -4.08x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $79.01M Interest coverage -192.50x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
Total debt $26.66M Interest coverage -17,024.25x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
Total debt $28.10M Interest coverage -36.67x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
Total debt $15.51M Interest coverage -16.10x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
What you should know
The case for and against CLLS
2 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 75.8% last year.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 1/10 years.
Risks
-
Return on equity was -94.5% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
-
Insider ownership is only 0.0% (peer median: 8.0%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
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Forward P/E
-2.37x
P/B
2.60x
P/S
2.32x
EV/EBITDA
-0.44x
PEG ratio
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Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
100.0%
Operating margin
-340.7%
Net margin
-102.3%
ROE
-94.5%
ROA
-11.7%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.96x
Current ratio
1.37x
Quick ratio
1.34x
Total debt
$80.35M
Total cash
$166.69M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$63.82M
Revenue 5Y CAGR
56.1%
EPS TTM
-0.63
EPS 5Y CAGR
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Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$-39.40M
Free CF TTM
$-42.93M
FCF margin
-67.3%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
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