Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) Short Interest Update

Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 29th, there was short interest totaling 15,066,130 shares, a growth of 57.6% from the May 14th total of 9,561,026 shares. Currently, 15.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 4,478,910 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on EDIT shares. Robert W. Baird set a $6.00 target price on Editas Medicine in a report on Monday, March 9th. JonesTrading raised shares of Editas Medicine from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $8.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Editas Medicine from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Editas Medicine in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Editas Medicine in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.40.

Insider Transactions at Editas Medicine

In other news, CEO Gilmore Neil O’neill sold 15,380 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.70, for a total value of $41,526.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 248,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $670,445.10. This represents a 5.83% 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. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 16,575 shares of company stock valued at $44,753. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Editas Medicine

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in EDIT. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Editas Medicine by 30.7% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,972,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,811,000 after purchasing an additional 932,382 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in Editas Medicine by 122.2% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,600,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,016,000 after purchasing an additional 1,430,000 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Editas Medicine by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,284,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,685,000 after purchasing an additional 244,574 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Editas Medicine by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,974,931 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,049,000 after purchasing an additional 49,887 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP lifted its position in Editas Medicine by 63.3% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 1,584,155 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,497,000 after purchasing an additional 614,229 shares during the last quarter. 71.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Editas Medicine Price Performance

EDIT opened at $2.55 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $2.94 and its 200 day moving average is $2.45. Editas Medicine has a fifty-two week low of $1.66 and a fifty-two week high of $4.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $249.67 million, a P/E ratio of -2.07 and a beta of 2.16.

Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($0.26) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.30) by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.37 million. Editas Medicine had a negative return on equity of 677.39% and a negative net margin of 281.59%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Editas Medicine will post -1.03 earnings per share for the current year.

About Editas Medicine

Editas Medicine is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on translating the power of gene editing into a new class of transformative genomic medicines. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company leverages proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cas12a (Cpf1) platforms to develop therapies aimed at correcting disease-causing genetic mutations. Editas Medicine’s research and development efforts span multiple therapeutic areas, including inherited retinal diseases, hemoglobinopathies, and oncology.

The company’s pipeline includes EDIT-101, a lead candidate designed to treat Leber congenital amaurosis type 10 (LCA10), which has entered early-stage clinical trials, and EDIT-301, targeting sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia using an ex vivo editing approach.