Insider Selling: Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) Major Shareholder Sells $83,942.40 in Stock

Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNA) major shareholder Barry Canton sold 13,116 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.40, for a total transaction of $83,942.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 338,568 shares in the company, valued at $2,166,835.20. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Major shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

Barry Canton also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, April 8th, Barry Canton sold 13,155 shares of Ginkgo Bioworks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.93, for a total transaction of $91,164.15.

Ginkgo Bioworks Price Performance

Shares of Ginkgo Bioworks stock opened at $6.46 on Monday. Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $5.37 and a fifty-two week high of $17.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $399.76 million, a P/E ratio of -1.14 and a beta of 1.56. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $7.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.48.

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported ($1.42) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.80) by $0.38. Ginkgo Bioworks had a negative net margin of 183.81% and a negative return on equity of 52.82%. The firm had revenue of $33.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.57 million. On average, analysts expect that Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. will post -10.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Trending Headlines about 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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ginkgo Bioworks

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ginkgo Bioworks by 4.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,480,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,166,000 after purchasing an additional 99,379 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of Ginkgo Bioworks by 10.0% during the third quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 2,200,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,076,000 after purchasing an additional 200,000 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Ginkgo Bioworks by 7.9% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,608,923 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,458,000 after buying an additional 118,402 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ginkgo Bioworks by 113.1% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,427,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,137,000 after buying an additional 757,535 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Ginkgo Bioworks by 38.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,292,071 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,737,000 after buying an additional 358,231 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.63% of the company’s stock.

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.