HC Wainwright Reiterates Buy Rating for Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL)

Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities researchers at HC Wainwright in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $60.00 price target on the stock.

Separately, BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Precision BioSciences from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th.

Precision BioSciences Trading Up 3.5 %

Shares of DTIL stock opened at $4.70 on Friday. Precision BioSciences has a 12-month low of $3.61 and a 12-month high of $15.97. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $5.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $6.53. The company has a quick ratio of 9.22, a current ratio of 9.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $36.05 million, a PE ratio of 78.35 and a beta of 1.59.

Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The company reported ($3.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($2.09) by ($1.11). The firm had revenue of $3.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.28 million. Precision BioSciences had a negative return on equity of 23.69% and a net margin of 11.48%. As a group, analysts predict that Precision BioSciences will post -1.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Precision BioSciences news, insider J. Jefferson Smith sold 10,287 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.79, for a total transaction of $49,274.73. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 87,440 shares in the company, valued at $418,837.60. This represents a 10.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael Amoroso sold 36,838 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.67, for a total transaction of $172,033.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 107,087 shares in the company, valued at approximately $500,096.29. This represents a 25.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 48,243 shares of company stock worth $227,424 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 4.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. OCONNOR A Distinct Business Unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Precision BioSciences by 22.0% in the 4th quarter. OCONNOR A Distinct Business Unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 15,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 2,805 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC bought a new position in Precision BioSciences in the fourth quarter valued at about $48,000. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC bought a new position in shares of Precision BioSciences in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Precision BioSciences during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Precision BioSciences by 40.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 65,974 shares of the company’s stock valued at $591,000 after purchasing an additional 19,088 shares during the last quarter. 37.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Precision BioSciences Company Profile

Precision BioSciences, Inc, an advanced gene editing company, develops in vivo gene editing therapies for gene edits, including gene elimination, insertion, and excision in the United States. The company offers ARCUS, a genome editing platform to DNA genome insertion, deletion, and repair. It also provides PBGENE-HBV for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) to eliminate covalently closed circular DNA with direct cuts and edits as well as to inactivate integrated HBV DNA with the goal of long-lasting reductions in hepatitis B surface antigen; PBGENE-PMM for the treatment of m.3243 associated primary mitochondrial myopathy (PMM) which is expected to submit an IND and/or CTA.