Stoke Therapeutics (NASDAQ:STOK) Trading Up 1.6% - Should You Buy?

Key Points

• Stoke Therapeutics shares rose 1.6% in Friday trading, with the stock last changing hands at $29.82 after trading as high as $30.52.
• Wall Street remains generally bullish on the biotech name: nine analysts rate it a Buy, with a consensus Moderate Buy rating and average target price of $41.83, though Weiss Ratings recently downgraded it to Sell.
• The company reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss of ($0.79) EPS, but revenue came in slightly below estimates; insiders have also been selling shares, including recent sales by the general counsel and another insider.

Stoke Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STOK - Get Free Report)'s share price was up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $30.52 and last traded at $29.82. Approximately 478,898 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 9% from the average daily volume of 526,191 shares. The stock had previously closed at $29.36.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on STOK. Wedbush upped their target price on shares of Stoke Therapeutics from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Stoke Therapeutics from a "hold (c)" rating to a "sell (d)" rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating and set a $39.00 target price on shares of Stoke Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of Stoke Therapeutics from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Stoke Therapeutics from $36.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Stoke Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $41.83.

Stoke Therapeutics Price Performance

The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $32.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.36. The company has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.61 and a beta of 1.17.

Stoke Therapeutics (NASDAQ:STOK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.79) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.80) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $6.23 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.48 million. Stoke Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 529.20% and a negative return on equity of 48.84%. On average, analysts expect that Stoke Therapeutics, Inc. will post -3.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Stoke Therapeutics

In other news, General Counsel Jonathan Allan sold 4,628 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.34, for a total value of $145,041.52. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 28,836 shares in the company, valued at $903,720.24. This represents a 13.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jason Hoitt sold 1,931 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.34, for a total transaction of $60,517.54. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 10,276 shares in the company, valued at $322,049.84. This represents a 15.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 33,291 shares of company stock valued at $1,064,065 over the last three months. Company insiders own 9.50% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Stoke Therapeutics

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of STOK. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in shares of Stoke Therapeutics by 5.0% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 24,167 shares of the company's stock valued at $162,000 after purchasing an additional 1,149 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Stoke Therapeutics by 21.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,662,039 shares of the company's stock valued at $11,053,000 after purchasing an additional 293,072 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC grew its position in shares of Stoke Therapeutics by 125.2% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 26,978 shares of the company's stock valued at $179,000 after purchasing an additional 15,001 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Stoke Therapeutics by 26.6% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 25,655 shares of the company's stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 5,398 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in shares of Stoke Therapeutics by 33.9% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 66,419 shares of the company's stock valued at $754,000 after purchasing an additional 16,820 shares during the last quarter.

Stoke Therapeutics Company Profile

Stoke Therapeutics, headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing genetic medicines to upregulate protein production for the treatment of rare neuromuscular and neurological disorders. Founded in 2014, the company applies its proprietary Targeted Augmentation of Nuclear Gene Output (TANGO™) platform to design antisense oligonucleotides that selectively modulate RNA splicing and enhance expression of functional proteins.

The company's lead program, STK-001, is an antisense oligonucleotide therapy designed to increase production of the sodium channel protein SCN1A and is currently in clinical development for Dravet syndrome, a severe childhood-onset epilepsy.

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