Standard BioTools (NASDAQ:LAB) Upgraded to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Standard BioTools (NASDAQ:LAB) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Saturday.

LAB has been the topic of several other reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Standard BioTools to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Standard BioTools from $1.55 to $1.35 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Standard BioTools in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $1.35.

Standard BioTools Stock Down 3.4%

Shares of LAB stock opened at $1.13 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $1.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1.33. Standard BioTools has a 12-month low of $0.92 and a 12-month high of $1.72. The firm has a market cap of $434.56 million, a P/E ratio of -5.65 and a beta of 1.29.

Standard BioTools (NASDAQ:LAB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.08. The company had revenue of $23.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.50 million. Standard BioTools had a negative return on equity of 11.20% and a negative net margin of 59.39%. As a group, research analysts expect that Standard BioTools will post -0.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Casdin Partners Master Fund, L purchased 150,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $1.45 per share, with a total value of $217,500.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 72,100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $104,545,000. This represents a 0.21% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have acquired 350,000 shares of company stock worth $503,000. Corporate insiders own 23.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Standard BioTools

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LAB. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Standard BioTools by 862.2% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 482,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $522,000 after purchasing an additional 432,725 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in Standard BioTools by 199.3% in the second quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 56,957 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 37,926 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Standard BioTools by 3.3% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,134 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,931,000 after buying an additional 235,677 shares during the period. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Standard BioTools by 56.6% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 61,102 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 22,082 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Standard BioTools by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 149,018 shares of the company’s stock worth $179,000 after buying an additional 8,519 shares during the period. 53.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Standard BioTools

Standard BioTools, Inc (NASDAQ: LAB), formerly known as Fluidigm Corporation, is a life sciences tools company that develops and commercializes high-parameter, single-cell and spatial biology solutions. The company’s platforms integrate microfluidics, mass cytometry, sequencing and imaging to enable researchers to probe cellular heterogeneity, molecular interactions and complex tissue architecture. Its end users span academic institutions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide.

The company’s flagship products include mass cytometry systems—such as the Helios and Hyperion Imaging System—for multiplexed protein analysis at single-cell resolution, and the Chromium-style single-cell genomic tools for high-throughput gene expression profiling.