HC Wainwright Reaffirms Buy Rating for Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL)

HC Wainwright reissued their buy rating on shares of Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL) in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. HC Wainwright currently has a $60.00 target price on the stock.

Precision BioSciences Trading Down 9.1 %

Shares of DTIL stock opened at $9.74 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $67.40 million, a PE ratio of -0.61 and a beta of 1.53. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.74. Precision BioSciences has a 52 week low of $8.25 and a 52 week high of $27.90.

Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 27th. The company reported ($3.35) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.00 by ($6.35). Precision BioSciences had a negative net margin of 125.84% and a negative return on equity of 204.66%. The company had revenue of $7.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.50 million. Equities research analysts expect that Precision BioSciences will post -3.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Michael Amoroso sold 4,579 shares of Precision BioSciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.80, for a total transaction of $49,453.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,881 shares in the company, valued at $128,314.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 6,005 shares of company stock worth $64,854 in the last 90 days. 5.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Precision BioSciences

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DTIL. Balyasny Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Precision BioSciences by 70.1% in the 3rd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC now owns 19,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 7,967 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in Precision BioSciences in the first quarter valued at about $34,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in Precision BioSciences by 235.6% in the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 25,647 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 18,005 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Precision BioSciences during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Citigroup Inc. purchased a new stake in Precision BioSciences during the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. 37.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Precision BioSciences

Precision BioSciences, Inc, an advanced gene editing company, develops in vivo gene editing therapies for gene edits, including gene elimination, insertion, and excision in the United States. The company offers ARCUS, a genome editing platform to DNA genome insertion, deletion, and repair. It also provides PBGENE-HBV for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) to eliminate covalently closed circular DNA with direct cuts and edits as well as to inactivate integrated HBV DNA with the goal of long-lasting reductions in hepatitis B surface antigen; PBGENE-PMM for the treatment of m.3243 associated primary mitochondrial myopathy (PMM) which is expected to submit an IND and/or CTA.