Cartesian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RNAC) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts have a “Moderate Buy” consensus on Cartesian Therapeutics, with five buy ratings, one hold, and one sell among seven firms. The average 12-month price target is $32.60, well above the recent share price of $7.73.
• Institutional investors own 86.95% of the stock, with several firms recently increasing their positions, including Renaissance Technologies, which boosted its stake by 63.7%.
• RNAC shares have traded between $5.60 and $11.00 over the past year, while the company reported quarterly EPS of $0.46, beating the consensus estimate of a $0.88 loss.

Cartesian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RNAC - Get Free Report) has earned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the seven research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $32.60.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on RNAC. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cartesian Therapeutics from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 target price on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $38.00 price target on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th.

Institutional Trading of Cartesian Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its stake in Cartesian Therapeutics by 0.7% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 2,254,619 shares of the company's stock valued at $23,493,000 after acquiring an additional 16,133 shares during the last quarter. 683 Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics by 21.7% in the 4th quarter. 683 Capital Management LLC now owns 280,000 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,019,000 after purchasing an additional 50,000 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH boosted its holdings in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 271,705 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,956,000 after purchasing an additional 11,694 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics by 63.7% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 67,300 shares of the company's stock valued at $414,000 after purchasing an additional 26,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at $332,000. 86.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cartesian Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ RNAC traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $7.73. 27,503 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 201,275. The company's fifty day moving average is $8.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.97. Cartesian Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $5.60 and a fifty-two week high of $11.00. The stock has a market cap of $233.86 million, a PE ratio of -1.31 and a beta of 0.62.

Cartesian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RNAC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.88) by $1.34. Research analysts forecast that Cartesian Therapeutics will post -3.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Cartesian Therapeutics Company Profile

Cartesian Therapeutics, Inc NASDAQ: RNAC is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cell therapies for autoimmune diseases. Its research focuses on mRNA cell therapy, an approach designed to program a patient's own immune cells to target disease-related proteins while enabling transient expression of the therapeutic construct.

The company's lead program, Descartes-08, is an autologous anti-BCMA CAR T-cell therapy that uses mRNA to direct T cells against B-cell maturation antigen.

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