Stifel Canada on Friday maintained its buy rating on the shares of ATEX Resources (ATX.V) while raising its price target to C$4.00 from C$3.50 after the company released a new mineral resource estimate (MRE) for its Valeriano Project in Chile.

"ATEX has announced an updated MRE that i) provides significant relative downside protection for the stock (now trading at US$0.015/lb CuEq versus precedent M&A transactions for US$0.04-0.05/lb CuEq), and ii) increases our confidence into the Phase VI drilling season on our exploration efficiency thesis. The inclusion of the B2B Zone will likely help the market derisk the value of the deeper porphyry resource, and provides a fingerprint for further breccia exploration, which will be a focus of what we think will be a 25,000m program that has already seen drills spinning. We are upgrading our target to C$4.00/sh, and note ATEX drilling efficiency of 303t CuEq/ m drilled compares favorably versus the prior Filo Mining's 266t/m @ FdS. The combination of NAV bank downside protection into a season primed for efficient discovery provide some of the best risk adjusted return potential of our coverage universe," analyst Cole McGill wrote.

(MT Newswires covers equity, commodity and economic research from major banks and research firms in North America, Asia and Europe. Research providers may contact us here: https://www.mtnewswires.com/contact-us)

Price: 2.51, Change: +0.04, Percent Change: +1.83