Wall Street Zen Downgrades Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) to Strong Sell

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen has downgraded Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating, signaling concerns about the company's performance.
• The stock has seen recent price target revisions, with Needham & Company lowering it from $9.00 to $8.00 and Morgan Stanley from $7.00 to $6.40, while Absci's average price target is now $8.08.
• Absci reported a loss of ($0.24) per share for its last quarter, missing expectations, with a negative net margin of 2,737.94% and analysts predicting a challenging fiscal year ahead.

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI - Free Report) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on ABSI. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Absci from $7.00 to $6.40 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Absci from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $7.98.

Absci Trading Down 1.9%

ABSI traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $2.57. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,689,766 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,550,841. Absci has a fifty-two week low of $2.01 and a fifty-two week high of $6.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $384.27 million, a PE ratio of -2.73 and a beta of 2.02. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.13.

Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 12th. The company reported ($0.24) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by ($0.05). Absci had a negative net margin of 2,737.94% and a negative return on equity of 60.21%. The business had revenue of $0.59 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.39 million. Research analysts expect that Absci will post -0.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Andreas Busch purchased 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 28th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $3.04 per share, for a total transaction of $152,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 327,264 shares in the company, valued at $994,882.56. This trade represents a 18.03% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 10.49% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Absci

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ABSI. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Absci by 32.5% in the 1st quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 10,955,089 shares of the company's stock worth $27,497,000 after acquiring an additional 2,689,153 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in shares of Absci in the 1st quarter worth $5,792,000. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of Absci in the 2nd quarter worth $1,575,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Absci in the 1st quarter worth $1,251,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Absci by 22.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,445,450 shares of the company's stock worth $6,286,000 after acquiring an additional 448,984 shares during the last quarter. 52.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Absci

Absci Corporation operates as a data-first generative artificial intelligence (AI) drug creation company in the United States. The company combines AI with scalable wet lab technologies to create biologics for patients. Its integrated drug creation platform is designed to improve upon traditional biologic drug discovery by using AI to simultaneously optimize multiple drug characteristics that may be important to development and therapeutic benefit.