Sera Prognostics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SERA) Short Interest Up 54.2% in March

Sera Prognostics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SERA) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 381,493 shares, an increase of 54.2% from the March 15th total of 247,469 shares. Approximately 1.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 82,680 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.6 days.

Sera Prognostics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SERA traded up $0.01 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $2.14. The stock had a trading volume of 1,305 shares, compared to its average volume of 58,771. Sera Prognostics has a 52 week low of $1.37 and a 52 week high of $4.09. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $2.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.72 million, a PE ratio of -3.13 and a beta of 1.05.

Sera Prognostics (NASDAQ:SERA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 18th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.17) by $0.01. Sera Prognostics had a negative net margin of 39,417.29% and a negative return on equity of 37.50%. The company had revenue of $0.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.03 million. Analysts forecast that Sera Prognostics will post -0.96 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sera Prognostics news, CEO Zhenya Lindgardt sold 22,639 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.90, for a total transaction of $43,014.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 741,287 shares in the company, valued at $1,408,445.30. This trade represents a 2.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 55,133 shares of company stock worth $109,794 in the last three months. 15.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sera Prognostics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Jane Street Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sera Prognostics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Sera Prognostics by 267.4% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 36,722 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,000 after purchasing an additional 26,726 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP acquired a new stake in shares of Sera Prognostics in the third quarter valued at approximately $97,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Sera Prognostics in the second quarter valued at approximately $92,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new stake in shares of Sera Prognostics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $74,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on SERA shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Sera Prognostics in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Sera Prognostics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.00.

Sera Prognostics Company Profile

Sera Prognostics, Inc is a precision medicine company focused on improving pregnancy outcomes through proteomic testing. The company’s flagship product, the PreTRM™ test, is a blood-based assay designed to assess a woman’s risk of delivering prematurely by measuring specific protein biomarkers in maternal serum. By identifying patients at elevated risk for spontaneous preterm birth, Sera Prognostics aims to enable earlier interventions and tailored care plans that can reduce the incidence of neonatal complications associated with early delivery.

Since its founding in 2014 and subsequent initial public offering in 2020, Sera Prognostics has worked closely with clinical research networks and obstetric care providers across the United States to validate the clinical performance of its PreTRM test.