Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) Earns Outperform Rating from Analysts at Leerink Partners

Research analysts at Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage set an “outperform” rating and a $12.00 price target on the stock. Leerink Partners’ target price suggests a potential upside of 102.02% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on ABSI. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $7.00 target price on shares of Absci in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. BTIG Research initiated coverage on Absci in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $9.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $4.10 price objective on Absci in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Absci from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Absci in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Absci currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $8.52.

Absci Trading Down 6.5%

NASDAQ:ABSI opened at $5.94 on Thursday. Absci has a 1-year low of $2.24 and a 1-year high of $7.34. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $4.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $926.05 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.16 and a beta of 2.44.

Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by $0.01. Absci had a negative return on equity of 66.32% and a negative net margin of 6,450.76%.The firm had revenue of $0.22 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.39 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Absci will post -0.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Absci news, insider Andreas Busch acquired 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 12th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $2.29 per share, with a total value of $229,000.00. Following the purchase, the insider owned 421,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $965,111.34. This represents a 31.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Absci

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABSI. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Absci in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Essential Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Absci by 113,850.0% in the 1st quarter. Essential Partners LLC now owns 9,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 9,108 shares during the period. Scientech Research LLC bought a new position in shares of Absci during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Absci during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Xponance LLC bought a new position in shares of Absci during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.05% of the company’s stock.

About Absci

Absci Corporation (NASDAQ: ABSI) is a biotechnology company that applies machine learning, synthetic biology and automation to accelerate the discovery and development of protein-based therapeutics. The company’s Integrated Drug Creation® (IDC®) platform is designed to identify and produce novel antibody and enzyme candidates at speeds and scales that traditional biopharma discovery methods cannot match. Absci works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners to generate, screen and optimize protein molecules for a wide range of therapeutic applications.

The core of Absci’s offering is its end-to-end discovery engine, which combines proprietary algorithms, high-throughput laboratory automation and a deep learning framework.