Short Interest in Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) Expands By 57.6%

Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of May. As of May 29th, there was short interest totaling 15,066,130 shares, an increase of 57.6% from the May 14th total of 9,561,026 shares. Currently, 15.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,478,910 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Editas Medicine Stock Performance

EDIT stock opened at $2.36 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $2.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.45. Editas Medicine has a fifty-two week low of $1.66 and a fifty-two week high of $4.54. The firm has a market cap of $231.06 million, a PE ratio of -1.92 and a beta of 2.16.

Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.30) by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.83 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.37 million. Editas Medicine had a negative net margin of 281.59% and a negative return on equity of 677.39%. On average, equities analysts predict that Editas Medicine will post -1.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Gilmore Neil O’neill sold 15,380 shares of Editas Medicine stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.70, for a total transaction of $41,526.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 248,313 shares in the company, valued at $670,445.10. This trade represents a 5.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 16,575 shares of company stock worth $44,753 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Editas Medicine during the first quarter worth $88,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Editas Medicine by 30.7% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,972,160 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,811,000 after buying an additional 932,382 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in Editas Medicine by 19.6% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 88,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $219,000 after buying an additional 14,516 shares during the period. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in Editas Medicine during the first quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Independent Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Editas Medicine during the first quarter worth $50,000. 71.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Chardan Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Editas Medicine from $3.50 to $4.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Editas Medicine from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, May 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Editas Medicine in a report on Monday, April 20th. Robert W. Baird set a $6.00 target price on shares of Editas Medicine in a report on Monday, March 9th. Finally, JonesTrading raised shares of Editas Medicine from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $8.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Editas Medicine has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.40.

About Editas Medicine

Editas Medicine is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on translating the power of gene editing into a new class of transformative genomic medicines. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company leverages proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cas12a (Cpf1) platforms to develop therapies aimed at correcting disease-causing genetic mutations. Editas Medicine’s research and development efforts span multiple therapeutic areas, including inherited retinal diseases, hemoglobinopathies, and oncology.

The company’s pipeline includes EDIT-101, a lead candidate designed to treat Leber congenital amaurosis type 10 (LCA10), which has entered early-stage clinical trials, and EDIT-301, targeting sickle cell disease and ?-thalassemia using an ex vivo editing approach.