Passage Bio (NASDAQ:PASG) Coverage Initiated at Oppenheimer

Equities research analysts at Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of Passage Bio (NASDAQ:PASG) in a research note issued on Tuesday. The brokerage set an “outperform” rating and a $30.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer’s target price points to a potential upside of 385.44% from the company’s current price.

PASG has been the subject of several other research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on Passage Bio from $67.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Chardan Capital started coverage on Passage Bio in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Passage Bio in a report on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Passage Bio from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Passage Bio presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.50.

Passage Bio Trading Down 3.1%

PASG stock opened at $6.18 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $9.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.34. Passage Bio has a 12-month low of $5.12 and a 12-month high of $20.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.84 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.43 and a beta of 1.75.

Passage Bio (NASDAQ:PASG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The company reported ($4.08) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.19) by ($1.89). Equities analysts predict that Passage Bio will post -1.03 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO William Chou sold 4,076 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.44, for a total value of $75,161.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 6,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,302.56. This represents a 38.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Passage Bio

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Eversept Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Passage Bio in the 4th quarter worth about $1,490,000. Yiheng Capital Management L.P. purchased a new position in Passage Bio during the 4th quarter valued at about $405,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new stake in Passage Bio during the third quarter worth about $188,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Passage Bio in the fourth quarter worth about $148,000. Finally, Nano Cap New Millennium Growth Fund L P purchased a new stake in Passage Bio in the fourth quarter worth about $118,000. Institutional investors own 53.48% of the company’s stock.

Passage Bio Company Profile

Passage Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of gene therapies to treat rare, monogenic central nervous system and neuromuscular disorders. The company applies its in-house gene therapy platform to design and engineer adeno-associated virus (AAV)–based vectors that restore or replace defective genes, aiming to deliver durable treatments with a single administration.

The company’s lead programs include PBGM01, an AAV9-based therapy for GM2 gangliosidoses (Tay–Sachs and Sandhoff diseases), which is conducting a first-in-human study to assess safety and potential therapeutic benefit.