Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) Shares Up 10.4% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNA) shot up 10.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday. The company traded as high as $11.03 and last traded at $11.0660. 1,254,926 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 14% from the average session volume of 1,452,420 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.02.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on DNA. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ginkgo Bioworks from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 26th. Zacks Research upgraded Ginkgo Bioworks to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. BTIG Research restated a “sell” rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of Ginkgo Bioworks in a research note on Friday, September 4th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Ginkgo Bioworks from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ginkgo Bioworks in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $7.00.

Ginkgo Bioworks Stock Up 11.8%

The company has a market cap of $754.41 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.22 and a beta of 1.79. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $8.53.

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($0.75) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.90) by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $20.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.05 million. Ginkgo Bioworks had a negative return on equity of 60.27% and a negative net margin of 259.96%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. will post -3.20 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ginkgo Bioworks

In related news, Director Christian O. Henry sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.08, for a total transaction of $35,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 19,310 shares in the company, valued at approximately $136,714.80. This trade represents a 20.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Reshma P. Shetty sold 18,803 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.14, for a total value of $190,662.42. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 356,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,613,176.06. This trade represents a 5.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 136,525 shares of company stock worth $1,379,699. 12.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ginkgo Bioworks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Balance Capital Partners L.P. acquired a new position in Ginkgo Bioworks in the second quarter worth about $1,972,179. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Ginkgo Bioworks by 23.8% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 127,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $779,000 after acquiring an additional 24,434 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ginkgo Bioworks by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 123,959 shares of the company’s stock valued at $760,000 after purchasing an additional 2,178 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in Ginkgo Bioworks in the 1st quarter valued at about $616,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC raised its holdings in Ginkgo Bioworks by 46.4% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 83,905 shares of the company’s stock valued at $514,000 after acquiring an additional 26,612 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.63% of the company’s stock.

Ginkgo Bioworks Company Profile

Ginkgo Bioworks is a biotechnology company that develops and deploys biological systems for commercial and industrial applications. Its platform is designed to help customers program cells to produce a wide range of products, including pharmaceuticals, food ingredients, agricultural inputs, specialty chemicals and materials. The company combines biological engineering, automation, software and data science to design, build and test engineered organisms.

Ginkgo provides services through its cell-programming platform and biological engineering foundry, supporting activities such as genetic design, strain construction, laboratory testing and process development.