Short Interest in Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNA) Decreases By 23.2%

Key Points

• Short interest fell by 23.2% to 6,146,646 shares as of March 31, representing 11.0% of the stock and a short-interest ratio of 5.2 days.
• Company insiders have been selling: executives sold a total of 543,629 shares (~$3.56M) in the past three months—sales the filings say were to cover tax withholding—leaving insiders with 9.72% ownership.
• Analyst sentiment is tepid with a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a $8.50 consensus price target, while the company remains unprofitable (negative EPS/net margin) and trades near $7.73 (market cap ≈ $479M).

Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNA - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 6,146,646 shares, a drop of 23.2% from the March 15th total of 8,004,118 shares. Currently, 11.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,189,510 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Steven P. Coen sold 33,171 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.41, for a total transaction of $212,626.11. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 49,849 shares of the company's stock, valued at $319,532.09. This trade represents a 39.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Jason R. Kelly sold 109,767 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.40, for a total value of $702,508.80. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 316,483 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,025,491.20. This trade represents a 25.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 543,629 shares of company stock valued at $3,555,093 in the last three months. 9.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ginkgo Bioworks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DNA. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Ginkgo Bioworks in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ginkgo Bioworks in the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Strategic Advocates LLC lifted its position in shares of Ginkgo Bioworks by 808.9% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC now owns 4,381 shares of the company's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 3,899 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Ginkgo Bioworks in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ginkgo Bioworks in the second quarter valued at approximately $71,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.63% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on DNA. TD Cowen dropped their target price on Ginkgo Bioworks from $14.00 to $12.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 8th. BTIG Research dropped their price objective on Ginkgo Bioworks from $9.00 to $5.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen raised Ginkgo Bioworks from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Ginkgo Bioworks in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus price target of $8.50.

Ginkgo Bioworks Trading Up 15.7%

Shares of DNA opened at $7.73 on Wednesday. Ginkgo Bioworks has a 12 month low of $5.37 and a 12 month high of $17.58. The stock's 50 day moving average is $7.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.42. The firm has a market cap of $478.64 million, a P/E ratio of -1.37 and a beta of 1.56.

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported ($1.42) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.80) by $0.38. Ginkgo Bioworks had a negative return on equity of 52.82% and a negative net margin of 183.81%.The company had revenue of $33.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.57 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Ginkgo Bioworks will post -10.02 EPS for the current year.

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc is a synthetic biology company that designs custom microbes for customers across a range of industries. Utilizing a proprietary organism foundry platform, the company engineers cells to produce high-value chemicals, enzymes, and other biological materials. By integrating automation, data analytics and machine learning, Ginkgo Bioworks seeks to accelerate the development of biologically derived solutions at industrial scale.

The company's services span the entire development cycle, from genetic design and strain optimization to fermentation and downstream processing.

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