Wells Fargo & Company Begins Coverage on WAVE Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE)

Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of WAVE Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) in a research note issued on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set an “overweight” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price points to a potential upside of 129.30% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on WVE. Canaccord Genuity Group started coverage on WAVE Life Sciences in a report on Monday, August 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $19.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer started coverage on WAVE Life Sciences in a report on Monday, July 28th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $24.00 price target for the company. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of WAVE Life Sciences in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of WAVE Life Sciences in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of WAVE Life Sciences in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.00.

WAVE Life Sciences Trading Up 0.5%

WVE stock opened at $7.85 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.36. WAVE Life Sciences has a twelve month low of $5.28 and a twelve month high of $16.74. The company has a market capitalization of $1.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.72 and a beta of -1.37.

WAVE Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.31) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.29) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $8.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.52 million. Research analysts predict that WAVE Life Sciences will post -1.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Christian O. Henry sold 9,670 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.81, for a total value of $85,192.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 29,645 shares in the company, valued at $261,172.45. This trade represents a 24.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Ken Takanashi sold 4,872 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.75, for a total value of $42,630.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,716,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,017,651.25. This represents a 0.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 241,893 shares of company stock worth $2,423,068. 23.98% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of WAVE Life Sciences by 736.5% in the third quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 258,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,889,000 after buying an additional 227,167 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of WAVE Life Sciences by 77.8% in the second quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 93,370 shares of the company’s stock valued at $607,000 after buying an additional 40,850 shares in the last quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of WAVE Life Sciences by 27.0% in the second quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 24,392 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,000 after buying an additional 5,182 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in shares of WAVE Life Sciences by 44.8% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 11,658 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 3,609 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sofinnova Investments Inc. purchased a new position in shares of WAVE Life Sciences in the second quarter valued at $766,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.73% of the company’s stock.

WAVE Life Sciences Company Profile

Wave Life Sciences Ltd., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, designs, develops, and commercializes ribonucleic acid (RNA) medicines through PRISM, a discovery and drug development platform. The company's RNA medicines platform, PRISM, combines multiple modalities, chemistry innovation, and deep insights into human genetics to deliver scientific breakthroughs that treat both rare and prevalent disorders.