NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 18, 2015 / SeeThruEquity, a leading independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on small-cap and micro-cap public companies, today announced it has initiated coverage of Stevia First Corporation (OTCQB: STVF) with Price Target of $1.04.

"Operating at the intersection of technology and biotechnology, Stevia First is an innovative ag-biotech company addressing the global diabetes and obesity epidemics with mass market food and nutrition products. We view stevia as having the potential to be disruptive in an industry dominated by sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial chemical sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartame, and saccharin," stated Ajay Tandon, CEO of SeeThruEquity. "We are initiating coverage with a 12-month price target of $1.04 per share."

Based in Yuba City, CA, Stevia has an experienced management team and a top-flight research team developing proprietary intellectual property as it seeks to identify critical unmet needs with the potential to revolutionize the food and nutrition industries. The company's initial efforts have been focused on solving the global supply issues associated with the production of stevia, a non-cancerous, natural, zero-calorie sweetener. We have been impressed by Stevia First's proprietary production method, which combines mechanized agriculture with enzymatic bioprocessing to save costs by more than doubling the output of high purity stevia, or Reb A, generated per ton of stevia leaf. We expect that this differentiated process along with the company's recent stevia leaf distribution agreement with Qualipride International will position the company well as it seeks to secure long term supply contracts with multinational consumer beverage corporations, the largest buyers of sweeteners.

The report is available here: STVF Initiation Report. SeeThruEquity is an approved equity research contributor on Thomson First Call, Capital IQ, FactSet, and Zack's. The report will also be available on these platforms. We also contribute our estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.

Additional highlights from the report are as follows:

Innovative new entrant targeting a massive market opportunity

Aiming to be the premier provider of stevia in the United States, Stevia First is targeting a massive lucrative market opportunity. Indeed the global market for sweeteners is over $58Bn annually. While the majority of this market is comprised of traditional nutritive sweeteners, such as sugar and high fructose corn syrup, according to Mintel, the market for sugar substitutes is approximately $11Bn per year. Stevia is one of the fastest-growing newcomers to the sugar substitutes market, a trend we estimate will continue due to its better safety profile relative to non-nutritive sugar substitutes such as Splenda, aspartame, and saccharin. We believe Stevia First is well positioned to address the global market for high purity stevia extract with its differentiated approach combined with its recent supply partnership with Qualipride International, a top five global producer of stevia leaf.

Geroprotectors represent a large complementary development area

Longer term, we also expect Stevia First to derive value from research directed towards geroprotectors. The company is seeking to address this emerging field in which new classes of molecules are being studied to attempt to influence the underlying cause of metabolic disorder, diabetes, and obesity - rather than the symptoms. Given the company's core mission of developing products that address the global diabetes and obesity epidemics with mass market food and nutrition products, we see this work as complementary to the company's core business. Over time we expect Stevia First to develop functional food ingredients aimed to positively influence the pathways that cause diabetes and obesity. We expect the this work to lead to a new line of nutraceutical products targeting diabetes and obesity, either through a partnership or by licensing its discoveries to a company with experience launching large nutraceutical products.

Initiate coverage with a price target of $1.04

Our analysis of Stevia First indicates a fair value estimate of $1.04 per share, implying an upside of 188.3% from the recent price of $0.36 on February 13, 2015. We view Stevia First as a compelling speculative growth story with an innovative approach to producing a high purity stevia - a high potency, zero calorie natural sweetener with the potential to disrupt the $58Bn global market for sweeteners. With an agreement with in place that should provide the company access to 1,000 metric tons of stevia production per year by fiscal 2016E, we see the company as well on its way to transforming from a research and development company to a premier provider of stevia.

About Stevia First Corporation

SF Corp. is an agricultural biotechnology company that is enabling dramatically healthier food and nutrition products. For more information visit: www.steviafirst.com and connect with the Company on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+.

About SeeThruEquity

SeeThruEquity is an equity research and corporate access firm focused on companies with less than $1 billion in market capitalization. The research is not paid for and is unbiased. We do not conduct any investment banking or commission based business. We are approved to contribute our research to Thomson One Analytics (First Call), Capital IQ, FactSet, Zacks, and distribute our research to our database of opt-in investors. We also contribute our estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.

For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.

Contact:

Ajay Tandon
SeeThruEquity
info@seethruequity.com

SOURCE: SeeThruEquity