Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) Shares Gap Up - Should You Buy?

Key Points

• Absci shares jumped, opening at $9.42 after a prior close of $8.85 and later trading near $9.64. The stock has a $1.64 billion market capitalization and trades above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive: eight analysts rate Absci a Buy and one rates it Sell, producing a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $13.43.
• Despite strong institutional ownership—52.05% of shares—Absci remains unprofitable. Its latest quarter missed estimates, with an adjusted loss of $0.21 per share versus $0.19 expected and revenue of $0.32 million versus $0.92 million forecast.

Absci Corporation (NASDAQ:ABSI - Get Free Report) shares gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $8.85, but opened at $9.42. Absci shares last traded at $9.6360, with a volume of 812,214 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on Absci in a report on Thursday, June 4th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $12.00 target price for the company. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Absci from $10.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. BTIG Research reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $13.00 price objective on shares of Absci in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Absci in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, HC Wainwright lifted their price target on shares of Absci from $8.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $13.43.

Absci Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.97 and a beta of 2.35. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $8.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $5.60.

Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.19) by ($0.02). Absci had a negative net margin of 7,756.38% and a negative return on equity of 61.71%. The company had revenue of $0.32 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.92 million. On average, analysts forecast that Absci Corporation will post -0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Absci

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Absci by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 12,550,799 shares of the company's stock worth $43,802,000 after acquiring an additional 388,026 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Absci during the second quarter valued at approximately $141,112,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Absci by 12.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,281,918 shares of the company's stock valued at $22,137,000 after purchasing an additional 830,336 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Absci by 190.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,990,877 shares of the company's stock worth $20,908,000 after purchasing an additional 3,925,926 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Absci by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,239,623 shares of the company's stock worth $11,309,000 after purchasing an additional 186,708 shares during the period. 52.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Absci Company Profile

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.

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