Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Cartesian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RNAC)

Cartesian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RNAC)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $40.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective points to a potential upside of 450.96% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $38.00 target price on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cartesian Therapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $44.00 target price on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Cartesian Therapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.60.

Cartesian Therapeutics Stock Performance

RNAC traded up $0.05 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $7.26. 92,587 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 199,548. Cartesian Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $5.60 and a 12-month high of $11.00. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.97. The company has a market cap of $219.62 million, a P/E ratio of -1.22 and a beta of 0.62.

Cartesian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RNAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.88) by $1.34. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cartesian Therapeutics will post -3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Cartesian Therapeutics

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sei Investments Co. purchased a new stake in Cartesian Therapeutics in the first quarter worth about $78,000. Miller Financial Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Miller Financial Services LLC now owns 13,643 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at about $332,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics by 63.7% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 67,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $414,000 after buying an additional 26,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 271,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,956,000 after buying an additional 11,694 shares during the last quarter. 86.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Cartesian Therapeutics

Cartesian Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ: RNAC) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cell therapies for autoimmune diseases. Its research focuses on mRNA cell therapy, an approach designed to program a patient’s own immune cells to target disease-related proteins while enabling transient expression of the therapeutic construct.

The company’s lead program, Descartes-08, is an autologous anti-BCMA CAR T-cell therapy that uses mRNA to direct T cells against B-cell maturation antigen.