Wall Street Zen Downgrades Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM) to Strong Sell

Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued on Sunday.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on BEAM. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating on shares of Beam Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on shares of Beam Therapeutics from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Beam Therapeutics in a report on Friday, July 17th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $47.00 price target on shares of Beam Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Tudor Pickering set a $39.00 price objective on shares of Beam Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.00.

Beam Therapeutics Price Performance

Beam Therapeutics stock opened at $27.10 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 14.57 and a quick ratio of 14.57. The company has a market capitalization of $2.80 billion, a PE ratio of -31.51 and a beta of 2.23. Beam Therapeutics has a one year low of $15.60 and a one year high of $38.26.

Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported ($1.18) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.11) by ($0.07). Beam Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 54.75% and a negative return on equity of 30.71%. The company had revenue of $0.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($1.00) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 94.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Beam Therapeutics will post -4.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Fmr Llc sold 251,488 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.26, for a total transaction of $8,867,466.88. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 854,583 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,132,596.58. This represents a 22.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Amy Simon sold 16,667 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.74, for a total transaction of $429,008.58. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 85,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,205,815.04. This represents a 16.28% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 301,527 shares of company stock worth $10,468,500 over the last quarter. 3.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BEAM. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Beam Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at $43,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new position in shares of Beam Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at $43,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich acquired a new position in shares of Beam Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Beam Therapeutics by 4,370.5% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 1,923 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Beam Therapeutics by 48.7% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 707 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.68% of the company’s stock.

Beam Therapeutics Company Profile

Beam Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ: BEAM) is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing precision genetic medicines through its pioneering base editing platform. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with additional research facilities in Philadelphia, the company focuses on engineering molecular editors capable of making precise single-nucleotide changes in DNA. By harnessing its proprietary base editing technology, Beam aims to correct or disrupt disease-causing genetic variants at their source, offering the potential for novel therapies in areas with significant unmet medical need.

Founded in 2017 as a spin-out from Harvard University and the Broad and Whitehead Institutes, Beam was co-founded by leading academic researcher David R.