Bank of America Upgrades Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) to “Buy”

Bank of America upgraded shares of Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $15.00 price target on the stock, up from their prior price target of $13.00.

EDIT has been the topic of several other reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Editas Medicine from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $7.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Oppenheimer reiterated a market perform rating and issued a $12.00 price objective on shares of Editas Medicine in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Editas Medicine from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Editas Medicine from $15.00 to $7.00 and set an in-line rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Editas Medicine from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Editas Medicine has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $11.50.

Editas Medicine Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EDIT traded down $0.23 during trading on Thursday, hitting $3.97. 1,792,838 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,926,969. The company has a market cap of $326.48 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.88 and a beta of 2.01. Editas Medicine has a 1 year low of $3.92 and a 1 year high of $11.69. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $5.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $6.38.

Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.82) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.69) by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $0.51 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.78 million. Editas Medicine had a negative return on equity of 47.34% and a negative net margin of 239.36%. Editas Medicine’s revenue for the quarter was down 82.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.56) earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Editas Medicine will post -2.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Baisong Mei sold 6,619 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.21, for a total transaction of $34,484.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 134,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $700,291.73. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Baisong Mei sold 6,619 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.21, for a total transaction of $34,484.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 134,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $700,291.73. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Linda Burkly sold 11,886 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.42, for a total transaction of $64,422.12. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 73,136 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $396,397.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,207 shares of company stock valued at $168,768 in the last 90 days. 1.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Editas Medicine

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC acquired a new stake in Editas Medicine during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $47,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in Editas Medicine by 401.9% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 5,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 4,156 shares in the last quarter. Hoylecohen LLC acquired a new stake in Editas Medicine during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $55,000. Spectrum Planning & Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Editas Medicine during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $57,000. Finally, Aries Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Editas Medicine during the second quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.90% of the company’s stock.

Editas Medicine Company Profile

Editas Medicine, Inc, a clinical stage genome editing company, focuses on developing transformative genomic medicines to treat a range of serious diseases. It develops a proprietary gene editing platform based on CRISPR technology. The company develops EDIT-101, which is in Phase 1/2 BRILLIANCE trial for Leber Congenital Amaurosis; and reni-cel, a clinical development gene-edited medicine to treat sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia.