B. Riley Financial Upgrades Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) to “Strong-Buy”

Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) was upgraded by analysts at B. Riley Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Thursday, Zacks reports.

PGEN has been the subject of several other research reports. Wall Street Zen raised Precigen from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. HC Wainwright increased their price objective on shares of Precigen from $14.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Precigen in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Precigen from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Precigen has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.67.

Precigen Trading Up 0.6%

PGEN opened at $7.75 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $6.78 and a 200-day moving average of $5.17. The stock has a market cap of $2.76 billion, a PE ratio of -7.45 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 3.89, a current ratio of 4.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15. Precigen has a 52 week low of $2.99 and a 52 week high of $8.27.

Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $54.98 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.98 million. Precigen had a negative net margin of 183.98% and a positive return on equity of 423.75%. Precigen’s revenue was up 6322.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Precigen will post 0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Precigen

In other news, COO Rutul R. Shah sold 15,342 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.50, for a total value of $115,065.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 468,865 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,487.50. This trade represents a 3.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Helen Sabzevari sold 346,836 shares of Precigen stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.89, for a total value of $2,042,864.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,768,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,198,656.08. The trade was a 8.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 991,271 shares of company stock worth $6,208,620. Company insiders own 41.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Corient Private Wealth LP purchased a new stake in shares of Precigen during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,908,000. KBC Group NV bought a new position in shares of Precigen in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,338,000. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Precigen in the second quarter worth approximately $1,309,000. Patient Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Precigen in the second quarter worth approximately $108,511,000. Finally, Occam Crest Management LP grew its position in Precigen by 29.6% during the fourth quarter. Occam Crest Management LP now owns 3,501,739 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $14,637,000 after buying an additional 799,339 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 33.51% of the company’s stock.

Precigen Company Profile

Precigen, Inc (NASDAQ:PGEN) is a biotechnology company focused on developing gene and cell therapies for cancer and other serious diseases. The company uses its synthetic biology platforms to engineer targeted medicines designed to improve treatment effectiveness, durability and safety.

Precigen’s technology portfolio includes its UltraCAR-T platform for developing next-generation CAR-T cell therapies, the AdenoVerse platform for gene delivery and immunotherapy applications, and ActoBiotics technology for the localized delivery of therapeutic proteins.