Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) Stock Price Up 17.1% – Time to Buy?

Absci Corporation (NASDAQ:ABSI) shares shot up 17.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $6.59 and last traded at $6.9560. 916,666 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 4,108,024 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.94.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ABSI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Absci in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $4.10 price objective on shares of Absci in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. BTIG Research began coverage on shares of Absci in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $9.00 price objective for the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $7.00 price objective on shares of Absci in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Absci in a research report on Thursday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $12.00 price objective for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Absci presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $8.52.

Absci Stock Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $4.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.52. The firm has a market cap of $1.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.30 and a beta of 2.44.

Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.20) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $0.22 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.39 million. Absci had a negative return on equity of 66.32% and a negative net margin of 6,450.76%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Absci Corporation will post -0.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Andreas Busch bought 100,000 shares of Absci stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $2.29 per share, for a total transaction of $229,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 421,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $965,111.34. This trade represents a 31.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Absci

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Absci by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 12,550,799 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,802,000 after purchasing an additional 388,026 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Absci by 12.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,281,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,137,000 after purchasing an additional 830,336 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Absci by 190.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,990,877 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,908,000 after purchasing an additional 3,925,926 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Absci by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,239,623 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,309,000 after purchasing an additional 186,708 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Absci by 24.4% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,191,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,701,000 after purchasing an additional 625,451 shares in the last quarter. 52.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Absci

Absci Corporation (NASDAQ: ABSI) is a biotechnology company that applies machine learning, synthetic biology and automation to accelerate the discovery and development of protein-based therapeutics. The company’s Integrated Drug Creation® (IDC®) platform is designed to identify and produce novel antibody and enzyme candidates at speeds and scales that traditional biopharma discovery methods cannot match. Absci works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners to generate, screen and optimize protein molecules for a wide range of therapeutic applications.

The core of Absci’s offering is its end-to-end discovery engine, which combines proprietary algorithms, high-throughput laboratory automation and a deep learning framework.