Cellectis (NASDAQ:CLLS) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Cellectis (NASDAQ:CLLS) to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on CLLS. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cellectis in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Cellectis in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Cellectis in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $7.00 price target on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.00.

Cellectis Price Performance

Shares of CLLS opened at $3.63 on Thursday. Cellectis has a fifty-two week low of $1.33 and a fifty-two week high of $5.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $364.23 million, a PE ratio of -5.42 and a beta of 2.94. The company’s 50-day moving average is $3.70 and its 200-day moving average is $4.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52.

Cellectis (NASDAQ:CLLS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.26) by $0.08. Cellectis had a negative net margin of 89.51% and a negative return on equity of 80.66%. The business had revenue of $7.55 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.04 million.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cellectis

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CLLS. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in Cellectis by 228.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,722,664 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,856,000 after buying an additional 3,284,409 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Cellectis by 132.9% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 46,377 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 26,461 shares in the last quarter. Delaney Dennis R acquired a new stake in Cellectis during the third quarter worth about $68,000. B Group Inc. grew its stake in Cellectis by 0.8% during the third quarter. B Group Inc. now owns 3,281,501 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $9,352,000 after buying an additional 25,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Cellectis during the third quarter worth about $72,000. 63.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Cellectis

Cellectis is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of gene‐edited cell therapies for oncology. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Paris, France, the company also maintains operations in New York City and Raleigh, North Carolina. Cellectis applies its proprietary TALEN genome editing platform to engineer allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T‐cell (CAR‐T) candidates designed to target blood cancers and solid tumors.

The company’s core business activities encompass the discovery, development and manufacturing of off‐the‐shelf immunotherapies.