Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) Shares Up 14.4% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) rose 14.4% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $3.24 and last traded at $3.2950. Approximately 1,740,575 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 14% from the average session volume of 2,018,987 shares. The stock had previously closed at $2.88.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded Editas Medicine from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH initiated coverage on Editas Medicine in a report on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $6.00 price target for the company. Wall Street Zen raised Editas Medicine from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Editas Medicine in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Chardan Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Editas Medicine from $3.50 to $4.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.50.

Editas Medicine Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $451.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.92 and a beta of 2.14. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.70.

Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.12. Editas Medicine had a negative net margin of 157.32% and a negative return on equity of 196.63%. The company had revenue of $11.89 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.85 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Editas Medicine, Inc. will post -0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Editas Medicine news, CEO Gilmore Neil O’neill sold 15,380 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.70, for a total transaction of $41,526.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 248,313 shares in the company, valued at $670,445.10. This represents a 5.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,503 shares of company stock worth $57,910. 3.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Editas Medicine

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Editas Medicine in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,190,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Editas Medicine by 30.7% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,972,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,811,000 after buying an additional 932,382 shares during the period. Eversept Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Editas Medicine during the fourth quarter worth about $596,000. Walleye Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Editas Medicine during the second quarter worth about $596,000. Finally, SCS Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Editas Medicine during the second quarter worth approximately $113,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.90% of the company’s stock.

Editas Medicine Company Profile

Editas Medicine is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on translating the power of gene editing into a new class of transformative genomic medicines. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company leverages proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cas12a (Cpf1) platforms to develop therapies aimed at correcting disease-causing genetic mutations. Editas Medicine’s research and development efforts span multiple therapeutic areas, including inherited retinal diseases, hemoglobinopathies, and oncology.

The company’s pipeline includes EDIT-101, a lead candidate designed to treat Leber congenital amaurosis type 10 (LCA10), which has entered early-stage clinical trials, and EDIT-301, targeting sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia using an ex vivo editing approach.