Editas Medicine, Inc., a clinical stage genome editing company, focuses on developing transformative genomic medicines to treat a range of serious diseases. It develops a proprietary gene editing platform based on CRISPR technology. The company develops EDIT-101, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical trial for Leber Congenital Amaurosis 10 that leads to inherited childhood blindness. It also develops EDIT-102 for the treatment of Usher Syndrome 2A, which is a form of retinitis pigmentosa that also includes hearing loss; autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive form of retinal degeneration; and EDIT-301 to treat sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia. In addition, the company is developing gene-edited Natural Killer cell medicines to treat solid tumor cancers; alpha-beta T cells for multiple cancers; and gamma delta T cell therapies to treat cancer, as well as has an early discovery program to develop a therapy to treat a neurological disease. It has a research collaboration with Juno Therapeutics, Inc. to develop engineered T cells for cancer; strategic alliance and option agreement with Allergan Pharmaceuticals International Limited to discover, develop, and commercialize new gene editing medicines for a range of ocular disorders; and research collaboration with Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. to develop a therapy to treat a neurological disease, as well as research collaboration with AskBio. The company was formerly known as Gengine, Inc. and changed its name to Editas Medicine, Inc. in November 2013. Editas Medicine, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Editas Medicine Trading Down 6.6 %
Shares of NASDAQ:EDIT traded down $1.27 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $17.86. 15,165 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,741,213. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.26. Editas Medicine has a 1 year low of $9.59 and a 1 year high of $73.03.
Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT - Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.78) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.84) by $0.06. Editas Medicine had a negative net margin of 580.16% and a negative return on equity of 34.83%. The business had revenue of $6.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.29 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.81) earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 1578.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Editas Medicine will post -3.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Editas Medicine from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 12th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Editas Medicine from $55.00 to $28.00 in a report on Thursday, May 5th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Editas Medicine from $44.00 to $33.00 in a report on Monday, April 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Editas Medicine from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Editas Medicine from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $33.10.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, EVP Mark S. Shearman sold 5,145 shares of Editas Medicine stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.06, for a total value of $51,758.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 68,349 shares of the company's stock, valued at $687,590.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders sold 7,795 shares of company stock worth $82,340. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.