Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research lowered shares of Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Monday,Zacks reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. HC Wainwright increased their price target on Precigen from $14.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Precigen from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Precigen in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, B. Riley Financial initiated coverage on shares of Precigen in a research note on Friday, September 25th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $12.00 target price for the company. Four investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Precigen currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.67.

Precigen Price Performance

PGEN stock opened at $7.54 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 4.58, a quick ratio of 3.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15. The company has a market capitalization of $2.69 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.25 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.44. Precigen has a twelve month low of $2.99 and a twelve month high of $8.98.

Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The biotechnology company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.06. The business had revenue of $54.98 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.98 million. Precigen had a negative net margin of 183.98% and a positive return on equity of 423.75%. The firm’s revenue was up 6322.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Precigen will post 0.24 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Precigen

In other Precigen news, Director Jeffrey B. Kindler sold 185,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total value of $1,376,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 17,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $127,224. This trade represents a 91.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Rutul R. Shah sold 15,342 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.50, for a total value of $115,065.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 468,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,487.50. This trade represents a 3.17% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 401,511 shares of company stock worth $2,801,508 over the last three months. 41.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Precigen

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Engineers Gate Manager LP increased its holdings in shares of Precigen by 207.8% in the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 40,880 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 27,600 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Precigen during the second quarter worth about $73,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its holdings in Precigen by 462.8% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 353,272 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,014,000 after buying an additional 290,505 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its holdings in Precigen by 10.5% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 53,713 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $306,000 after buying an additional 5,086 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in Precigen during the second quarter worth about $227,000. 33.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Precigen

Precigen, Inc (NASDAQ:PGEN) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing gene and cell therapies for serious diseases, including cancer, infectious diseases and certain immune-related conditions. The company uses its proprietary technologies to engineer therapies intended to improve treatment precision, durability and accessibility.

Precigen’s pipeline has included PRGN-2012, an investigational immunotherapy for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, as well as programs based on its UltraCAR-T platform for cancer treatment.