Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) Lifted to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) was upgraded by analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, FinViz reports. The brokerage presently has a $7.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target points to a potential upside of 39.03% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Editas Medicine from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Editas Medicine from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of Editas Medicine from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Editas Medicine from $11.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.20.

Editas Medicine Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EDIT opened at $5.04 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $414.05 million, a P/E ratio of -2.46 and a beta of 2.09. Editas Medicine has a 52-week low of $4.91 and a 52-week high of $11.91. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $7.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.24.

Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.52) by $0.29. Editas Medicine had a negative return on equity of 42.95% and a negative net margin of 196.12%. The firm had revenue of $60.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.84 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.88) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 817.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Editas Medicine will post -2.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Baisong Mei sold 20,327 shares of Editas Medicine stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.42, for a total transaction of $191,480.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 141,543 shares in the company, valued at $1,333,335.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Baisong Mei sold 20,327 shares of Editas Medicine stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.42, for a total transaction of $191,480.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 141,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,333,335.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gilmore Neil O’neill sold 77,824 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.42, for a total value of $733,102.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 327,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,084,767.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Editas Medicine

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EDIT. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in Editas Medicine by 401.9% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 5,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 4,156 shares in the last quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC bought a new position in shares of Editas Medicine during the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Amalgamated Bank increased its holdings in Editas Medicine by 18.0% during the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 8,023 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 1,226 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Editas Medicine by 351.1% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 9,450 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,000 after buying an additional 7,355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Editas Medicine by 481.7% during the first quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 9,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 7,861 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.90% of the company’s stock.

About Editas Medicine

Editas Medicine, Inc, a clinical stage genome editing company, focuses on developing transformative genomic medicines to treat a range of serious diseases. It develops a proprietary gene editing platform based on CRISPR technology. The company develops EDIT-101, which is in Phase 1/2 BRILLIANCE trial for Leber Congenital Amaurosis; and reni-cel, a clinical development gene-edited medicine to treat sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia.