CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) Trading Up 6.8% Following Analyst Upgrade

CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP – Get Rating)’s share price was up 6.8% during trading on Tuesday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $55.00 to $70.00. The stock traded as high as $72.00 and last traded at $70.30. Approximately 992,731 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 19% from the average daily volume of 1,219,970 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.80.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on CRSP. VNET Group reaffirmed a “reiterates” rating on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, May 9th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in a report on Monday, April 17th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics from $69.00 to $64.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 9th. Chardan Capital lowered their price objective on CRISPR Therapeutics from $153.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on CRISPR Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, April 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $72.00 target price for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.37.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CRISPR Therapeutics news, CEO Samarth Kulkarni sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.25, for a total value of $1,206,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 375,988 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,141,421. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 75,000 shares of company stock worth $3,584,500. 4.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of CRISPR Therapeutics

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in CRISPR Therapeutics by 158.5% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,014,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,194,000 after purchasing an additional 1,848,437 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 228.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,569,860 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,400,000 after acquiring an additional 1,092,384 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 79.2% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,278,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,038,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,246 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 261.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,217,289 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,410,000 after purchasing an additional 880,463 shares during the period. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 33.6% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,993,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,689,000 after buying an additional 752,132 shares during the last quarter. 71.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CRISPR Therapeutics Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $5.30 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.00 and a beta of 1.71. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $51.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $50.54.

CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.67) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.64) by $0.97. CRISPR Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 26.64% and a negative net margin of 516.43%. The firm had revenue of $100.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $24.33 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($2.32) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10538.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that CRISPR Therapeutics AG will post -6.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About CRISPR Therapeutics

(Get Rating)

CRISPR Therapeutics is a gene-editing company focused on developing transformative gene-based medicines for serious diseases using its proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 platform. CRISPR/Cas9 is a revolutionary gene-editing technology that allows for precise, directed changes to genomic DNA. CRISPR Therapeutics has established a portfolio of therapeutic programs across a broad range of disease areas including hemoglobinopathies, oncology, regenerative medicine and rare diseases.