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

Zacks Research lowered shares of Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note released on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on PGEN. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Precigen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, November 15th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Precigen in a research report on Thursday. Finally, HC Wainwright upped their price objective on shares of Precigen from $8.50 to $9.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $8.50.

Precigen Trading Down 1.7%

PGEN stock opened at $4.76 on Thursday. Precigen has a 12-month low of $1.11 and a 12-month high of $5.22. The business’s 50-day moving average is $4.12 and its 200 day moving average is $3.55. The company has a current ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 3.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.11) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $0.67 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Precigen will post -0.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Precigen

In related news, Director Randal J. Kirk sold 1,900,036 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.18, for a total value of $7,942,150.48. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 341,189 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,426,170.02. This represents a 84.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,866,329 shares of company stock worth $20,233,899. 47.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PGEN. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Precigen by 216.9% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 63,179 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $94,000 after acquiring an additional 43,245 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Precigen by 12.5% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 81,610 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $122,000 after purchasing an additional 9,043 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in Precigen in the first quarter valued at $70,000. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Precigen by 142.9% in the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 36,771 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 21,633 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC raised its stake in Precigen by 17.3% in the second quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 275,870 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $392,000 after buying an additional 40,758 shares in the last quarter. 33.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Precigen Company Profile

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.