Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) Rating Lowered to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) was downgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the company. HC Wainwright raised their price objective on Precigen from $8.50 to $9.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 14th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Precigen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Precigen in a report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $8.50.

Precigen Stock Performance

Precigen stock opened at $4.76 on Thursday. Precigen has a fifty-two week low of $1.11 and a fifty-two week high of $5.22. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $3.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 3.95 and a current ratio of 4.04. The stock has a market cap of $1.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.42 and a beta of 1.10.

Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.11) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by ($0.03). Precigen had a positive return on equity of 1,066.10% and a negative net margin of 3,912.92%.The firm had revenue of $2.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.67 million. As a group, analysts expect that Precigen will post -0.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Precigen

In other Precigen news, Director Randal J. Kirk sold 1,900,036 shares of Precigen stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.18, for a total value of $7,942,150.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 341,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,426,170.02. The trade was a 84.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 4,866,329 shares of company stock valued at $20,233,899 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 47.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Precigen

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PGEN. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Precigen in the third quarter worth $39,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. purchased a new position in Precigen in the third quarter worth about $41,000. Asempa Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in shares of Precigen during the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Precigen during the 3rd quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Precigen during the 3rd quarter valued at about $53,000. 33.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Precigen

Precigen, Inc (NASDAQ: PGEN) is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of genetic medicines. The company leverages proprietary gene and cell therapy platforms to design targeted therapies for oncology, infectious diseases and rare conditions. Precigen’s approach combines synthetic biology, immuno-oncology and microbiome engineering to create precision treatments intended to enhance efficacy while minimizing off-target effects.

The centerpiece of Precigen’s technology is its OmniCAR platform, which enables the rapid generation of adaptable chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell products.