Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP)

CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $84.00 price objective on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective points to a potential upside of 145.18% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on CRSP. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics from $53.00 to $49.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America lowered their target price on CRISPR Therapeutics from $98.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays raised their price target on CRISPR Therapeutics from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. StockNews.com upgraded CRISPR Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 target price on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.11.

CRISPR Therapeutics Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ CRSP opened at $34.26 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.94 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.84 and a beta of 1.85. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $41.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $44.07. CRISPR Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $30.04 and a 52-week high of $67.88.

CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.44) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.15) by $0.71. CRISPR Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 18.46% and a negative net margin of 981.54%. On average, analysts anticipate that CRISPR Therapeutics will post -5.16 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel James R. Kasinger sold 2,850 shares of CRISPR Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.42, for a total value of $120,897.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 77,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,288,822.60. The trade was a 3.55 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Julianne Bruno sold 1,198 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.42, for a total transaction of $50,819.16. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,263 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $350,516.46. This represents a 12.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,381 shares of company stock worth $1,608,243 over the last 90 days. 4.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. NBC Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 156,300.0% in the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,564 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 1,563 shares during the last quarter. Green Alpha Advisors LLC increased its stake in CRISPR Therapeutics by 132.9% in the 1st quarter. Green Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 57,361 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,952,000 after purchasing an additional 32,732 shares in the last quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in CRISPR Therapeutics by 22.9% during the 1st quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,349 shares of the company’s stock worth $216,000 after buying an additional 1,182 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in CRISPR Therapeutics by 8,146.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,288 shares of the company’s stock valued at $146,000 after buying an additional 4,236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its holdings in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 104.7% in the first quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 5,073 shares of the company’s stock worth $173,000 after buying an additional 2,595 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.20% of the company’s stock.

About CRISPR Therapeutics

CRISPR Therapeutics is a gene-editing company focused on developing transformative gene-based medicines for serious diseases using its proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 platform. CRISPR/Cas9 is a revolutionary gene-editing technology that allows for precise, directed changes to genomic DNA. CRISPR Therapeutics has established a portfolio of therapeutic programs across a broad range of disease areas including hemoglobinopathies, oncology, regenerative medicine and rare diseases.