Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI)

Absci Corporation (NASDAQ:ABSI) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors purchased 11,273 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 403% compared to the average daily volume of 2,241 call options.

Insider Transactions at Absci

In other Absci news, insider Andreas Busch bought 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was bought at an average price of $2.29 per share, for a total transaction of $229,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 421,446 shares in the company, valued at approximately $965,111.34. The trade was a 31.11% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Absci

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. ARK Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Absci by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 12,550,799 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,802,000 after purchasing an additional 388,026 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Absci by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,281,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,137,000 after acquiring an additional 830,336 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Absci by 190.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,990,877 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,908,000 after buying an additional 3,925,926 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Absci by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,239,623 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,309,000 after buying an additional 186,708 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Absci by 24.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,191,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,701,000 after buying an additional 625,451 shares in the last quarter. 52.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Absci Price Performance

ABSI traded down $0.91 during trading on Friday, hitting $6.43. The company had a trading volume of 2,495,904 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,173,918. The company has a market cap of $1.00 billion, a PE ratio of -7.78 and a beta of 2.44. The business has a 50-day moving average of $4.46 and a 200-day moving average of $3.55. Absci has a 1-year low of $2.24 and a 1-year high of $7.39.

Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.20) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $0.22 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.39 million. Absci had a negative net margin of 6,450.76% and a negative return on equity of 66.32%. Research analysts forecast that Absci will post -0.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ABSI. Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Absci in a report on Thursday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $12.00 target price for the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $7.00 price objective on shares of Absci in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Absci from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. BTIG Research started coverage on shares of Absci in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Absci in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Absci presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $8.52.

Absci Company Profile

Absci Corporation (NASDAQ: ABSI) is a biotechnology company that applies machine learning, synthetic biology and automation to accelerate the discovery and development of protein-based therapeutics. The company’s Integrated Drug Creation® (IDC®) platform is designed to identify and produce novel antibody and enzyme candidates at speeds and scales that traditional biopharma discovery methods cannot match. Absci works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners to generate, screen and optimize protein molecules for a wide range of therapeutic applications.

The core of Absci’s offering is its end-to-end discovery engine, which combines proprietary algorithms, high-throughput laboratory automation and a deep learning framework.