Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAM) Short Interest Update

Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAM) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 12,310,000 shares, an increase of 10.3% from the October 15th total of 11,160,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 890,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 13.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BEAM. Leerink Partners upgraded Beam Therapeutics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $27.00 to $39.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Beam Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays lowered their price target on Beam Therapeutics from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Beam Therapeutics from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Beam Therapeutics from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Beam Therapeutics has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.91.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO John M. Evans sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total transaction of $1,476,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 938,659 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,091,011.40. This represents a 6.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Giuseppe Ciaramella sold 51,110 shares of Beam Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.36, for a total value of $1,347,259.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 109,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,877,194. This represents a 31.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 162,894 shares of company stock worth $4,181,745 over the last three months. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in Beam Therapeutics by 3.1% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 136,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,517,000 after buying an additional 4,100 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 143,828 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,752,000 after acquiring an additional 6,102 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 19,511 shares of the company’s stock worth $645,000 after acquiring an additional 1,873 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,578,768 shares of the company’s stock valued at $250,402,000 after acquiring an additional 413,892 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American International Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Beam Therapeutics by 2.0% in the first quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 36,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 732 shares during the period. 99.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Beam Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of BEAM stock traded up $0.12 on Monday, reaching $24.17. 323,407 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,232,939. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $24.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.89. Beam Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $20.84 and a 1 year high of $49.50. The company has a market cap of $2.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.97 and a beta of 1.86.

Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported ($1.17) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.16) by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $14.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.52 million. Beam Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 16.22% and a negative net margin of 41.07%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($1.22) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Beam Therapeutics will post -4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

About Beam Therapeutics

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.