New York, May 21, 2026, 09:19 (EDT)
Bright Minds Biosciences Inc. shares climbed on Wednesday after Piper Sandler boosted its price target on the company. DRUG closed at $82.78 on the Nasdaq, jumping 11.1% from Tuesday’s $74.54 finish. The new target puts the stock in focus for Thursday’s U.S. trading.
That’s relevant since U.S. markets were still closed at the dateline. Regular hours at Nasdaq are 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern, with pre-market hours ahead of that. So Wednesday’s close was the last official mark.
Piper Sandler boosted its Bright Minds price target to $220 from $190 and held its “Overweight” call, a rating that often says the firm expects outperformance versus the market. The Fly said Piper is still bullish after talks with management post-earnings, pointing to program progress. TipRanks
Piper Sandler analyst Yasmeen Rahimi appears on Bright Minds’ analyst-coverage page. Piper’s profile lists her as a senior biotech research analyst covering DRUG. Bright Minds notes that all analyst opinions and forecasts are their own and don’t represent the company.
Bright Minds’ latest filing landed more details for investors. In a May 19 Form 6-K, the foreign private issuer said cash and cash equivalents reached C$309.7 million as of March 31, up from C$82.9 million at Sept. 30. R&D spend climbed to C$18.7 million for the six months ended March 31, up from C$3.6 million a year ago. The company’s net loss widened to C$18.0 million from C$2.9 million.
The company updated its pipeline in the filing, saying BMB-101, its lead 5-HT2C agonist, finished Phase 1 and released topline Phase 2 data in January for developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEE) and absence seizures. The company is still doing prep work for more Phase 2/3 epilepsy trials and a Phase 2 trial in Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare genetic condition.
Bright Minds ended up with more cash after its public offering in January sold 1.945 million shares at $90 each for $175.05 million in gross proceeds. Back then, the company said it would use the money to pay for upcoming clinical trials for absence seizures, DEE and Prader-Willi Syndrome, work on BMB-105, some earlier-stage research, and for general corporate reasons.
Trial progress is still the story. In January, Bright Minds reported a 73.1% median drop in absence seizures of at least three seconds and a 63.3% median drop in major motor seizures for the DEE group. The company also said it had started work on registrational trials to back a regulatory filing.
Biotech and epilepsy stocks traded up. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF was up 2.2%. Praxis Precision Medicines rose 4.6%, and Xenon Pharmaceuticals added 1.1%. Praxis says it is working on movement disorders and epilepsy. Xenon’s XEN1101 is in a Phase 3 epilepsy program.
But there are risks too. Bright Minds is still clinical-stage and spending is climbing as trials move forward. In its filings, the company says it may need more cash, and raising new equity could dilute shareholders. There’s also the risk of delays from trial or regulatory issues. In a January prospectus, Bright Minds flagged possible stock swings tied to future share sales, thin trading, study outcomes, and analyst moves.
DRUG traders are staring at two figures: Piper’s $220 target price, and Bright Minds’ C$18.7 million R&D spend over six months. The real test comes Thursday at the open, when the market finds out if Wednesday’s analyst-driven action sticks during normal Nasdaq trading.
