GeneDx (NASDAQ:WGS) Rating Lowered to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of GeneDx (NASDAQ:WGS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on WGS. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of GeneDx from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities lowered their target price on shares of GeneDx from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of GeneDx from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of GeneDx in a report on Thursday, May 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $88.00 target price for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, GeneDx presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.75.

GeneDx Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WGS opened at $79.71 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $81.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 3.25 and a quick ratio of 3.07. The firm has a market cap of $2.27 billion, a PE ratio of -56.53 and a beta of 1.94. GeneDx has a 1-year low of $24.91 and a 1-year high of $117.75.

GeneDx (NASDAQ:WGS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $87.12 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.90 million. GeneDx had a negative net margin of 11.69% and a positive return on equity of 10.17%. On average, equities analysts expect that GeneDx will post 0.97 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Katherine Stueland sold 46,551 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.62, for a total transaction of $4,451,206.62. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,619,784.68. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Keith A. Meister bought 100,000 shares of GeneDx stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $56.01 per share, for a total transaction of $5,601,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,008,629 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $168,513,310.29. This represents a 3.44% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 120,319 shares of company stock worth $11,207,272 over the last ninety days. 29.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of GeneDx

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Voya Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in GeneDx by 79.5% in the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 6,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $604,000 after acquiring an additional 3,021 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of GeneDx during the first quarter worth $230,000. Ellsworth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of GeneDx during the first quarter worth $1,414,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of GeneDx by 1.6% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 36,182 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,199,000 after purchasing an additional 567 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in shares of GeneDx by 67.5% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 28,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,500,000 after purchasing an additional 11,375 shares during the period. 61.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About GeneDx

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.