Principal Financial Group Inc. Invests $604,000 in GeneDx Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:WGS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of GeneDx Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:WGS) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 14,240 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $604,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.05% of GeneDx as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of GeneDx during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,362,000. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of GeneDx during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,722,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of GeneDx by 304.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 147,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,240,000 after acquiring an additional 110,666 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC acquired a new position in GeneDx during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $325,000. Finally, Lisanti Capital Growth LLC purchased a new stake in GeneDx during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,554,000. 61.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other GeneDx news, CEO Katherine Stueland sold 10,501 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.75, for a total value of $805,951.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 71,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,460,455.50. This trade represents a 12.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kevin Feeley sold 3,728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.75, for a total value of $286,124.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,200 shares in the company, valued at $2,164,350. This represents a 11.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,123,603 shares of company stock worth $83,300,382 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 27.30% of the company’s stock.

GeneDx Stock Performance

NASDAQ WGS opened at $79.14 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a current ratio of 2.40. GeneDx Holdings Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $2.63 and a fifty-two week high of $89.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $76.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.17 billion, a P/E ratio of -25.45 and a beta of 2.03.

GeneDx (NASDAQ:WGS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.21) by $0.25. The company had revenue of $76.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.98 million. GeneDx had a negative return on equity of 13.35% and a negative net margin of 31.25%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 44.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.82) earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that GeneDx Holdings Corp. will post -0.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WGS. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of GeneDx from $54.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on GeneDx from $34.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Craig Hallum boosted their price objective on GeneDx from $70.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.33.

GeneDx Company Profile

GeneDx Holdings Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides genomics-related diagnostic and information services. The company offers Centrellis, an AI-driven health intelligence platform that integrates digital tools and artificial intelligence allowing scientists to ingest and synthesize clinical and genomic data to deliver comprehensive health insights.