Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) Short Interest Up 5.4% in December

Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,930,000 shares, a growth of 5.4% from the November 30th total of 16,060,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,450,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 6.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Editas Medicine

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Editas Medicine by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 296,154 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,383,000 after purchasing an additional 11,332 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in Editas Medicine in the second quarter valued at approximately $95,000. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in Editas Medicine by 2.9% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 137,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $644,000 after buying an additional 3,862 shares during the last quarter. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Editas Medicine in the second quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Editas Medicine by 13.6% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 126,240 shares of the company’s stock worth $590,000 after acquiring an additional 15,088 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EDIT has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays dropped their target price on Editas Medicine from $5.00 to $3.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Editas Medicine from $7.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Editas Medicine from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $7.00 to $4.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Editas Medicine from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Bank of America lowered Editas Medicine from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $13.00 to $1.00 in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $7.00.

Editas Medicine Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EDIT opened at $1.31 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $108.14 million, a PE ratio of -0.51 and a beta of 1.87. Editas Medicine has a fifty-two week low of $1.16 and a fifty-two week high of $11.58.

Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The company reported ($0.75) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.75). The company had revenue of $0.06 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.93 million. Editas Medicine had a negative net margin of 340.96% and a negative return on equity of 80.13%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 98.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.55) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Editas Medicine will post -2.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Editas Medicine

Editas Medicine, Inc, a clinical stage genome editing company, focuses on developing transformative genomic medicines to treat a range of serious diseases. It develops a proprietary gene editing platform based on CRISPR technology. The company develops EDIT-101, which is in Phase 1/2 BRILLIANCE trial for Leber Congenital Amaurosis; and reni-cel, a clinical development gene-edited medicine to treat sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia.