Insider Selling: Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) Insider Sells $702,508.80 in Stock

Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNA) insider Jason Kelly sold 109,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.40, for a total value of $702,508.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 316,483 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,025,491.20. The trade was a 25.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Ginkgo Bioworks Stock Performance

DNA opened at $6.46 on Monday. Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $5.37 and a one year high of $17.58. The company has a market cap of $399.76 million, a P/E ratio of -1.14 and a beta of 1.56. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.48.

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported ($1.42) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.80) by $0.38. Ginkgo Bioworks had a negative return on equity of 52.82% and a negative net margin of 183.81%.The business had revenue of $33.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.57 million. As a group, analysts predict that Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. will post -10.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Ginkgo Bioworks

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Ginkgo Bioworks by 23.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 261,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,175,000 after purchasing an additional 50,565 shares during the period. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL acquired a new stake in Ginkgo Bioworks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,612,000. Numerai GP LLC lifted its position in Ginkgo Bioworks by 94.1% during the 4th quarter. Numerai GP LLC now owns 25,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $213,000 after acquiring an additional 12,421 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in Ginkgo Bioworks by 113.9% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 48,901 shares of the company’s stock worth $406,000 after acquiring an additional 26,037 shares during the period. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC lifted its position in Ginkgo Bioworks by 81.4% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 57,293 shares of the company’s stock worth $476,000 after acquiring an additional 25,716 shares during the period. 78.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Ginkgo Bioworks

Here are the key news stories impacting Ginkgo Bioworks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: March short interest fell sharply — short interest totaled 6,146,646 shares as of March 31, down 23.2% from 8,004,118 on March 15; roughly 11.0% of the float is sold short and the days-to-cover is ~5.2. Reduced short exposure can remove a headwind and support the stock.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales by the CEO: Jason R. Kelly sold 97,015 shares on April 8 (avg $6.93) and 109,767 shares on April 9 (avg $6.40), totaling ~206,782 shares (~$1.37M) and materially reducing his holdings. The filings say the sales were to cover tax withholding on vested equity. Jason R. Kelly Form 4
• Negative Sentiment: Other insiders/major holders also sold small blocks (Reshma P. Shetty and Barry Canton each sold ~13k shares on April 8–9 at similar prices). These rounds of sales were likewise disclosed as tax-withholding-related. Reshma’s filing: Reshma P. Shetty Form 4; Barry Canton’s filing: Barry Canton Form 4

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on DNA. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Ginkgo Bioworks from $14.00 to $12.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ginkgo Bioworks in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen raised Ginkgo Bioworks from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, BTIG Research decreased their target price on Ginkgo Bioworks from $9.00 to $5.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $8.50.

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc is a synthetic biology company that designs custom microbes for customers across a range of industries. Utilizing a proprietary organism foundry platform, the company engineers cells to produce high-value chemicals, enzymes, and other biological materials. By integrating automation, data analytics and machine learning, Ginkgo Bioworks seeks to accelerate the development of biologically derived solutions at industrial scale.

The company’s services span the entire development cycle, from genetic design and strain optimization to fermentation and downstream processing.