Samarth Kulkarni Sells 9,973 Shares of CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) Stock

CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) CEO Samarth Kulkarni sold 9,973 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.42, for a total transaction of $423,054.66. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 180,890 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,673,353.80. The trade was a 5.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Samarth Kulkarni also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, February 19th, Samarth Kulkarni sold 18,360 shares of CRISPR Therapeutics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.20, for a total transaction of $1,013,472.00.

CRISPR Therapeutics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CRSP opened at $43.49 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $43.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.65. CRISPR Therapeutics AG has a 52 week low of $36.52 and a 52 week high of $76.86. The company has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.95 and a beta of 1.77.

CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.44) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.15) by $0.71. CRISPR Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 18.46% and a negative net margin of 981.54%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that CRISPR Therapeutics AG will post -5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CRSP. Evercore ISI raised shares of CRISPR Therapeutics from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $60.00 to $99.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics from $89.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics from $53.00 to $49.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on CRISPR Therapeutics from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.11.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CRISPR Therapeutics

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRSP. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 8,973,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $353,180,000 after acquiring an additional 1,474,439 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 10.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,743,523 shares of the company’s stock worth $344,145,000 after acquiring an additional 816,789 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 39.2% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,811,708 shares of the company’s stock worth $150,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,074,238 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 25.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,992,988 shares of the company’s stock worth $140,611,000 after acquiring an additional 599,304 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 1.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,376,166 shares of the company’s stock worth $111,632,000 after acquiring an additional 23,075 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.20% of the company’s stock.

About CRISPR Therapeutics

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.