Taysha Gene Therapies Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:TSHA)

Key Points

• Traders bought 6,277 call options on TSHA on Thursday — roughly a 2,571% increase over the average daily call volume of 235, indicating unusually heavy bullish options activity.
• Wall Street sentiment is broadly positive: the stock's consensus rating is Buy with an average price target of $11.64, and multiple firms have raised targets or reiterated buy/strong-buy recommendations.
• Company insiders have been net sellers recently — CEO Sean Nolan sold 136,789 shares and another insider sold 200,000 shares, with insiders selling 598,623 shares (≈$2.77M) in the past 90 days while owning 3.78% of the company.

Taysha Gene Therapies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSHA - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 6,277 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 2,571% compared to the average daily volume of 235 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on TSHA. Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating and set a $13.00 price target on shares of Taysha Gene Therapies in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Taysha Gene Therapies in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Taysha Gene Therapies from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on shares of Taysha Gene Therapies from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Finally, Chardan Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $12.00 price objective on shares of Taysha Gene Therapies in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $11.64.

Insider Activity at Taysha Gene Therapies

In related news, CEO Sean P. Nolan sold 136,789 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.75, for a total transaction of $649,747.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,949,569 shares in the company, valued at $14,010,452.75. The trade was a 4.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sukumar Nagendran sold 200,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.46, for a total value of $892,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,136,410 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,068,388.60. This trade represents a 14.97% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 598,623 shares of company stock worth $2,772,188 in the last 90 days. 3.78% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Taysha Gene Therapies

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vestal Point Capital LP lifted its holdings in shares of Taysha Gene Therapies by 150.0% during the fourth quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 13,750,000 shares of the company's stock valued at $75,625,000 after purchasing an additional 8,250,000 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Taysha Gene Therapies by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 13,692,739 shares of the company's stock valued at $75,310,000 after purchasing an additional 309,031 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Taysha Gene Therapies by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,267,805 shares of the company's stock valued at $72,973,000 after purchasing an additional 418,192 shares during the last quarter. Octagon Capital Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Taysha Gene Therapies by 17.7% during the second quarter. Octagon Capital Advisors LP now owns 12,592,500 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,089,000 after purchasing an additional 1,892,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Taysha Gene Therapies by 49.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,790,084 shares of the company's stock valued at $59,345,000 after purchasing an additional 3,553,619 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.70% of the company's stock.

Taysha Gene Therapies Price Performance

Shares of Taysha Gene Therapies stock traded down $0.19 during trading on Thursday, hitting $5.82. The stock had a trading volume of 2,143,459 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,748,110. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 12.23 and a quick ratio of 12.23. The firm has a market cap of $1.67 billion, a P/E ratio of -17.10 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a fifty day moving average of $4.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4.74. Taysha Gene Therapies has a fifty-two week low of $1.13 and a fifty-two week high of $6.04.

Taysha Gene Therapies (NASDAQ:TSHA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.08) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $5.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Taysha Gene Therapies will post -0.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Taysha Gene Therapies

Taysha Gene Therapies, Inc NASDAQ: TSHA is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing gene therapies for rare monogenic diseases of the central nervous system. Using a proprietary adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector platform, the company engineers novel capsids and regulatory elements to optimize delivery and expression of therapeutic genes. Its pipeline features lead programs such as TSHA-102 for GM2 gangliosidoses (Tay–Sachs and Sandhoff diseases), TSHA-101 for GM1 gangliosidosis and TSHA-103 for aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency, alongside earlier-stage candidates targeting other life-threatening pediatric CNS disorders.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Taysha Gene Therapies completed its initial public offering in May 2021.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.