Adaptive Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:ADPT) Shares Gap Up Following Strong Earnings

Adaptive Biotechnologies Co. (NASDAQ:ADPT)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday following a stronger than expected earnings report. The stock had previously closed at $3.11, but opened at $3.36. Adaptive Biotechnologies shares last traded at $3.51, with a volume of 865,157 shares trading hands.

The company reported ($0.33) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.35) by $0.02. Adaptive Biotechnologies had a negative net margin of 132.29% and a negative return on equity of 53.65%. The company had revenue of $41.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.40) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on ADPT shares. BTIG Research dropped their target price on shares of Adaptive Biotechnologies from $6.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Adaptive Biotechnologies from $11.00 to $8.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Adaptive Biotechnologies from $11.00 to $5.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $6.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Chad M. Robins sold 48,673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.43, for a total transaction of $166,948.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,576,701 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,838,084.43. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Stacy L. Taylor sold 13,381 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.43, for a total value of $45,896.83. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 166,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $570,364.41. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Chad M. Robins sold 48,673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.43, for a total transaction of $166,948.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,576,701 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,838,084.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 124,307 shares of company stock worth $428,090 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 5.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Adaptive Biotechnologies

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ADPT. Rubric Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Adaptive Biotechnologies in the 4th quarter valued at about $14,027,000. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Adaptive Biotechnologies by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 12,806,513 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,752,000 after purchasing an additional 1,297,205 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc purchased a new position in shares of Adaptive Biotechnologies in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,576,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Adaptive Biotechnologies by 1,760.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 864,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,713,000 after purchasing an additional 818,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Adaptive Biotechnologies by 32.1% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,603,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,757,000 after purchasing an additional 632,040 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.17% of the company’s stock.

Adaptive Biotechnologies Stock Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $3.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $3.90. The firm has a market cap of $468.64 million, a PE ratio of -2.04 and a beta of 1.27.

About Adaptive Biotechnologies

Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, a commercial-stage company, develops an immune medicine platform for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. The company offers immunosequencing platform which combines a suite of proprietary chemistry, computational biology, and machine learning to generate clinical immunomics data to decode the adaptive immune system.