Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM) Stock Price Up 21.3% - What's Next?

Key Points

• Beam Therapeutics shares surged by 21.3% during trading on Wednesday, reaching a last traded price of $19.78, despite a significant decline in average trading volume.
• Analysts' ratings for Beam Therapeutics varied, with three ratings showing a Strong Buy, nine a Buy, and two a Hold, while the company's consensus target price is $48.45.
• In the latest quarterly earnings, Beam reported ($1.00) earnings per share, slightly better than the consensus estimate, but with revenue down 28.0% year-over-year, totaling $8.47 million.

Shares of Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAM - Get Free Report) shot up 21.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $17.64 and last traded at $19.78. 347,228 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 2,075,385 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.31.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BEAM. Barclays reduced their price target on Beam Therapeutics from $25.00 to $21.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Beam Therapeutics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Beam Therapeutics from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Beam Therapeutics has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $48.45.

Beam Therapeutics Stock Up 12.6%

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $18.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.47. The company has a market capitalization of $2.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.64 and a beta of 2.14.

Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported ($1.00) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.04) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $8.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.29 million. Beam Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 43.15% and a negative net margin of 661.31%.Beam Therapeutics's revenue for the quarter was down 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($1.11) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Beam Therapeutics Inc. will post -4.57 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Beam Therapeutics news, insider Fmr Llc sold 48,374 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total value of $991,667.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 2,073,665 shares of the company's stock, valued at $42,510,132.50. This represents a 2.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 49,624 shares of company stock valued at $1,015,628. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Beam Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BEAM. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Beam Therapeutics by 20.0% in the 1st quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 8,480,089 shares of the company's stock valued at $165,616,000 after buying an additional 1,412,060 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Beam Therapeutics by 72.6% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,026,701 shares of the company's stock valued at $59,112,000 after buying an additional 1,273,559 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Beam Therapeutics by 16.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,871,292 shares of the company's stock valued at $173,256,000 after buying an additional 1,249,303 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new stake in Beam Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $10,101,000. Finally, EcoR1 Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Beam Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $10,286,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.68% of the company's stock.

About Beam Therapeutics

Beam Therapeutics Inc, a biotechnology company, engages in the development of precision genetic medicines for patients suffering from serious diseases in the United States. It develops BEAM-101 for the treatment of sickle cell disease or beta-thalassemia; and BEAM-302, a liver-targeting LNP formulation to treat severe alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency; BEAM-201, an anti-CD7 CAR-T product candidate, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for the treatment of refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/T cell lymphoblastic lymphoma; and BEAM-301, a liver-targeting LNP formulation for the treatment of glycogen storage disease 1a.