LENZ Therapeutics (NASDAQ:LENZ) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.22 EPS

LENZ Therapeutics (NASDAQ:LENZ) announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday. The company reported ($1.32) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.10) by ($0.22), FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $1.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.76 million.

Here are the key takeaways from LENZ Therapeutics’ conference call:

• LENZ reported approximately 25,000 paid/filled prescriptions in Q1, roughly 46,000 total monthly units since launch and $1.9M in net revenue (including $1.7M product sales), with over 10,000 unique prescribers—an early sign of commercial traction.
• Management acknowledged that new patient starts and routine ECP prescribing have been more gradual than expected and emphasized the need to accelerate adoption through physician behavior changes and improved patient onboarding.
• At a comparable launch stage, VIZZ is generating roughly 70% more scripts per prescriber than VUITY and about 60% of prescribing ECPs have written VIZZ multiple times, indicating stronger scripts-per-physician and early habit formation.
• Q1 SG&A totaled $45M (~$40.7M net of stock comp), net loss was $41.5M (~$1.32/sh), cash on hand was ~$258.4M with a Q1 burn of ~$34M, and R&D was effectively zero as spend shifts to commercial operations.
• After ~46,000 boxes (~1.2M doses) distributed, real-world safety shows 0 retinal detachments and 2 retinal tears (both with pre-existing risk factors), and management highlights aceclidine’s pupil-selective MOA as a potential safety differentiator versus competitors.

LENZ Therapeutics Trading Down 0.7%

LENZ stock opened at $9.99 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $10.36 and a 200-day moving average of $17.15. LENZ Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $8.25 and a 12-month high of $50.40. The company has a market cap of $313.19 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.56 and a beta of 0.62.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On LENZ Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of LENZ Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of LENZ Therapeutics by 2,146.2% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 1,116 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in shares of LENZ Therapeutics by 51.4% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,405 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in shares of LENZ Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of LENZ Therapeutics by 93.7% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 944 shares during the last quarter. 54.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on LENZ shares. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of LENZ Therapeutics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of LENZ Therapeutics from $52.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of LENZ Therapeutics from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $39.00 to $12.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of LENZ Therapeutics from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of LENZ Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.00.

About LENZ Therapeutics

LENZ Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing therapies to improve vision in the United States. Its product candidates include LNZ100 and LNZ101 which are in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of presbyopia. The company is headquartered in Del Mar, California.