Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) Shares Up 10.5% – Time to Buy?

Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) shot up 10.5% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $3.27 and last traded at $3.3160. Approximately 1,261,704 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 39% from the average daily volume of 2,077,548 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.00.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EDIT has been the topic of several research reports. Wall Street Zen raised Editas Medicine from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings raised Editas Medicine from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on shares of Editas Medicine in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $6.00 target price on the stock. Chardan Capital raised their target price on shares of Editas Medicine from $3.50 to $4.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Editas Medicine in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.50.

Editas Medicine Stock Down 3.0%

The business has a fifty day moving average of $2.98 and a 200 day moving average of $2.73. The firm has a market cap of $488.38 million, a P/E ratio of -4.24 and a beta of 2.14.

Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) last issued its 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. The firm had revenue of $11.89 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.85 million. Editas Medicine had a negative return on equity of 196.63% and a negative net margin of 157.32%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Editas Medicine, Inc. will post -0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Gilmore Neil O’neill sold 15,380 shares of Editas Medicine 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 248,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $670,445.10. This trade represents a 5.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,503 shares of company stock worth $57,910. 3.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Editas Medicine

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Editas Medicine by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 92,397 shares of the company’s stock worth $190,000 after purchasing an additional 6,177 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of Editas Medicine by 33.3% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 27,168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,000 after purchasing an additional 6,787 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Editas Medicine in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Editas Medicine during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Pallas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Editas Medicine during the second quarter worth about $38,000. 71.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.