CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) Stock Price Up 2.8% After Analyst Upgrade

CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP)’s share price shot up 2.8% during trading on Thursday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $88.00 to $89.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. CRISPR Therapeutics traded as high as $57.19 and last traded at $57.11. 273,490 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 1,825,960 shares. The stock had previously closed at $55.56.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on CRSP. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wolfe Research started coverage on CRISPR Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on CRISPR Therapeutics from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on CRISPR Therapeutics from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on CRISPR Therapeutics from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Samarth Kulkarni sold 19,582 shares of CRISPR Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.91, for a total transaction of $1,173,157.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 208,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,468,589.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other CRISPR Therapeutics news, General Counsel James R. Kasinger sold 2,801 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.26, for a total transaction of $219,206.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 60,070 shares in the company, valued at $4,701,078.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Samarth Kulkarni sold 19,582 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.91, for a total transaction of $1,173,157.62. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 208,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,468,589.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 133,992 shares of company stock valued at $9,157,835 over the last three months. 4.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jump Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 194.7% in the third quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 33,307 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,512,000 after acquiring an additional 22,006 shares during the last quarter. Baker Chad R bought a new position in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,365,000. Capital Advisors Inc. OK raised its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 7.4% in the third quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 231,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,527,000 after acquiring an additional 15,951 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 1.5% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 136,123 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,179,000 after acquiring an additional 2,061 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 8,536,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $534,360,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372,986 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.20% of the company’s stock.

CRISPR Therapeutics Price Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $73.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.34. The company has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -28.61 and a beta of 1.76.

CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.95. The firm had revenue of $201.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $148.72 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($1.41) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3253.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that CRISPR Therapeutics AG will post -6.24 EPS for the current year.

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.