CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) Short Interest Up 5.4% in December

CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) was the target of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 19,100,000 shares, a growth of 5.4% from the December 15th total of 18,120,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,670,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 11.4 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRSP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $53.00 price target on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics from $98.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 target price on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in a report on Friday, December 20th. Chardan Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $94.00 price target on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of CRISPR Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, December 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $78.38.

CRISPR Therapeutics Stock Performance

NASDAQ CRSP traded up $0.23 during trading on Friday, reaching $40.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,367,550 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,559,954. The firm has a market cap of $3.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.32 and a beta of 1.68. CRISPR Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $36.52 and a twelve month high of $91.10. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $45.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.08.

CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported ($1.01) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.42) by $0.41. CRISPR Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 118.13% and a negative return on equity of 12.15%. The company had revenue of $0.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.65 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($1.41) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that CRISPR Therapeutics will post -5.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Samarth Kulkarni sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.62, for a total transaction of $1,668,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 196,540 shares in the company, valued at $10,931,554.80. This trade represents a 13.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 4.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CRISPR Therapeutics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Capital Market Strategies LLC purchased a new position in CRISPR Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $461,000. Capital Advisors Inc. OK grew its holdings in CRISPR Therapeutics by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 300,589 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,122,000 after purchasing an additional 22,583 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in CRISPR Therapeutics by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,008,214 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,383,000 after purchasing an additional 35,196 shares in the last quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in CRISPR Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,375,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in CRISPR Therapeutics by 25.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,992,988 shares of the company’s stock valued at $140,611,000 after acquiring an additional 599,304 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.20% of the company’s stock.

CRISPR Therapeutics Company Profile

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.