Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) Stock Price Down 9.4% – Should You Sell?

Precigen, Inc. (NASDAQ:PGEN)’s stock price fell 9.4% during mid-day trading on Friday. The stock traded as low as $6.47 and last traded at $6.5250. 2,586,815 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 45% from the average session volume of 4,673,632 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.20.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Precigen in a research note on Thursday. Wall Street Zen raised Precigen from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. HC Wainwright raised their price objective on Precigen from $14.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research cut Precigen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Finally, B. Riley Financial started coverage on Precigen in a research note on Friday, September 25th. They set a “buy” rating and a $12.00 price objective for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.67.

Precigen Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.32 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.26 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 3.89, a current ratio of 4.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $7.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $5.61.

Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The biotechnology company reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $54.98 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.98 million. Precigen had a positive return on equity of 423.75% and a negative net margin of 183.98%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6322.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Precigen, Inc. will post 0.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Precigen news, Director Jeffrey Kindler sold 185,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $1,376,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 17,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $127,224. This trade represents a 91.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Harry Thomasian, Jr. sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.06, for a total transaction of $606,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 254,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,542,482.10. This trade represents a 28.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 401,511 shares of company stock worth $2,801,508 in the last three months. 41.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Precigen

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Patient Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Precigen in the 2nd quarter valued at $108,511,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Precigen in the 2nd quarter worth $97,737,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Precigen in the 2nd quarter worth $10,536,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Precigen by 9.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 555,230 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,165,000 after purchasing an additional 46,796 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Precigen during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,705,000. 33.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Precigen Company Profile

Precigen, Inc (NASDAQ:PGEN) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing gene and cell therapies for serious diseases, including cancer, infectious diseases and certain immune-related conditions. The company uses its proprietary technologies to engineer therapies intended to improve treatment precision, durability and accessibility.

Precigen’s pipeline has included PRGN-2012, an investigational immunotherapy for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, as well as programs based on its UltraCAR-T platform for cancer treatment.