Beam Therapeutics Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:BEAM)

Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAM) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 2,316 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 139% compared to the average daily volume of 968 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on BEAM. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Beam Therapeutics in a report on Friday, July 17th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $47.00 target price on shares of Beam Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Beam Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Tudor Pickering set a $39.00 price objective on shares of Beam Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on Beam Therapeutics from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Beam Therapeutics news, insider Fmr Llc sold 251,488 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.26, for a total value of $8,867,466.88. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 854,583 shares in the company, valued at $30,132,596.58. This represents a 22.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Amy Simon sold 16,667 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.74, for a total transaction of $429,008.58. Following the transaction, the insider owned 85,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,205,815.04. This trade represents a 16.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 301,527 shares of company stock valued at $10,468,500 over the last 90 days. 3.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Beam Therapeutics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 55,780.0% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 33,528 shares of the company’s stock worth $655,000 after buying an additional 33,468 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 10.8% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 438,529 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,564,000 after acquiring an additional 42,609 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Beam Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at about $201,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 17.7% during the second quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 30,629 shares of the company’s stock valued at $521,000 after acquiring an additional 4,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 46.0% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 128,874 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,192,000 after purchasing an additional 40,583 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.68% of the company’s stock.

Beam Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of BEAM stock traded down $3.76 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $25.90. 2,319,619 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,043,516. The company has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a PE ratio of -30.10 and a beta of 2.22. The company has a current ratio of 14.57, a quick ratio of 14.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Beam Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $19.35 and a 12-month high of $38.26. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.97.

Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported ($1.18) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.11) by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $0.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 million. Beam Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 54.75% and a negative return on equity of 30.71%. Beam Therapeutics’s revenue for the quarter was down 94.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($1.00) EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Beam Therapeutics will post -4.49 earnings per share for the current year.

About Beam Therapeutics

Beam Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ: BEAM) is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing precision genetic medicines through its pioneering base editing platform. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with additional research facilities in Philadelphia, the company focuses on engineering molecular editors capable of making precise single-nucleotide changes in DNA. By harnessing its proprietary base editing technology, Beam aims to correct or disrupt disease-causing genetic variants at their source, offering the potential for novel therapies in areas with significant unmet medical need.

Founded in 2017 as a spin-out from Harvard University and the Broad and Whitehead Institutes, Beam was co-founded by leading academic researcher David R.