LEGN Stock Clocks Best Day In Three Years — What’s Driving The Rally?

• Legend, like Kelonia, develops and manufactures cell therapies to treat life-threatening diseases, particularly cancer.
• Legend is best known for Carvykti, a CAR-T treatment for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, developed and marketed in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson.

Shares of Legend Biotech (LEGN) closed 18% higher on Monday, its best day since April 2023, following Eli Lilly and Company’s (LLY) buyout of its rival Kelonia Therapeutics for up to $7 billion.

Lilly said earlier in the day that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Kelonia to advance CAR-T cell therapies. Kelonia's lead program, KLN-1010, is an in vivo CAR-T therapy currently in early-stage studies for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Under the terms of the deal, Lilly will pay Ketonia shareholders an upfront payment of $3.25 billion in addition to milestone payments. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026.

Legend, like Kelonia, develops and manufactures cell therapies to treat life-threatening diseases, particularly cancer. It is best known for Carvykti, a CAR-T treatment for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, developed in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

Last month, Legend said that more than 10,000 patients have been treated with Carvykti and that the franchise achieved profitability for the full year 2025. Carvykti net trade sales came in at $1.9 billion for the year.

Wall Street Takeaway

Following the deal announcement, RBC Capital reportedly reiterated an ‘Outperform’ rating and $62.00 price target on Legend Biotech, opining that it highlights large pharma interest in the CAR-T market, according to a report from Investing.com. Legend has potential sales of $2.8 billion in 2026, according to RBC.

H.C. Wainwright also reiterated a ‘Buy’ rating with a $50 price target citing progress across the company’s CAR-T therapy programs, as per Investing. First-in-human data from the LUCAR-G39D in vivo cell therapy for relapsed/refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma is expected to start rolling in during the second half of 2026, with Wainwright flagging ASCO 2026 conference in late May to in early June as a plausible venue for the first readout.

According to data from Koyfin, 14 of 16 analysts covering LEGN rate it ‘Buy’ or higher while two rate it ‘Hold.’ The 12-month average price target on the stock is $57.23, presenting a potential upside of about 128% from last close.

How Did Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around LEGN stayed within the ‘extremely bullish’ territory while message volume jumped from ‘high’ to ‘extremely high’ levels.

A Stocktwits user sounded optimistic for Johnson & Johnson acquiring Legend to “not split the revenue” with Carvykti.

Another voiced optimism for the company getting bought out for $41/ per share, presenting significant upside.

LEGN stock has fallen 22% over the past 12 months. 

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