Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM)

Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by Wedbush in a research note issued to investors on Monday,RTT News reports. They currently have a $57.00 price target on the stock. Wedbush’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 132.75% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Beam Therapeutics from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Beam Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective on shares of Beam Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank raised Beam Therapeutics from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Beam Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.50.

Beam Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BEAM traded down $3.99 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $24.49. The company had a trading volume of 4,568,214 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,394,202. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.91 and a beta of 1.91. Beam Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $20.84 and a 1-year high of $38.37.

Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.09) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.25) by $0.16. The company had revenue of $30.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.47 million. Beam Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 41.07% and a negative return on equity of 16.22%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 90.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.73 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Beam Therapeutics will post -4.57 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Christine Bellon sold 1,241 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.68, for a total value of $30,627.88. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 102,968 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,541,250.24. The trade was a 1.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO John M. Evans sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.75, for a total value of $802,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 908,659 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,306,628.25. This trade represents a 3.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 4.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Beam Therapeutics

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 59.7% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 3,552,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,044,000 after buying an additional 1,328,414 shares during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 7,068,029 shares of the company’s stock worth $175,287,000 after acquiring an additional 536,930 shares during the last quarter. Casdin Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 61.3% in the fourth quarter. Casdin Capital LLC now owns 1,250,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000,000 after acquiring an additional 475,000 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 12.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,929,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,274,000 after purchasing an additional 437,402 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. grew its stake in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 3,957,611 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,109,000 after purchasing an additional 404,782 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.68% of the company’s stock.

Beam Therapeutics Company Profile

Beam Therapeutics Inc, a biotechnology company, engages in the development of precision genetic medicines for patients suffering from serious diseases in the United States. It develops BEAM-101 for the treatment of sickle cell disease or beta-thalassemia; and BEAM-302, a liver-targeting LNP formulation to treat severe alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency; BEAM-201, an anti-CD7 CAR-T product candidate, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for the treatment of refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/T cell lymphoblastic lymphoma; and BEAM-301, a liver-targeting LNP formulation for the treatment of glycogen storage disease 1a.