Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) Stock Price Up 7.7% – Still a Buy?

Absci Corporation (NASDAQ:ABSI) shares rose 7.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $3.94 and last traded at $3.9650. Approximately 2,647,072 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 29% from the average daily volume of 3,752,759 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.68.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABSI has been the topic of several research reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $7.00 target price on shares of Absci in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Morgan Stanley lowered Absci from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $4.32 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Absci in a research note on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Absci currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $6.44.

Absci Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $2.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $608.25 million, a PE ratio of -4.68 and a beta of 2.00.

Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 24th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.16) by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $0.65 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.38 million. Absci had a negative return on equity of 62.33% and a negative net margin of 4,113.68%. As a group, research analysts predict that Absci Corporation will post -0.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Absci

In other news, insider Andreas Busch acquired 100,000 shares of Absci stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $2.29 per share, with a total value of $229,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 421,446 shares in the company, valued at $965,111.34. This trade represents a 31.11% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sean Mcclain sold 26,761 shares of Absci stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.99, for a total value of $80,015.39. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,334,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,920,355.33. This represents a 0.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Absci

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ABSI. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Absci by 190.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,990,877 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,908,000 after acquiring an additional 3,925,926 shares during the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Absci in the fourth quarter worth $8,201,000. Baker BROS. Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Absci in the fourth quarter worth $7,450,000. ARK Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Absci by 21.1% in the third quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 12,162,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,975,000 after acquiring an additional 2,116,845 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Absci by 2,955.4% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,156,067 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,526,000 after acquiring an additional 2,085,501 shares during the last quarter. 52.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Absci Company Profile

Absci Corporation (NASDAQ: ABSI) is a biotechnology company that applies machine learning, synthetic biology and automation to accelerate the discovery and development of protein-based therapeutics. The company’s Integrated Drug Creation® (IDC®) platform is designed to identify and produce novel antibody and enzyme candidates at speeds and scales that traditional biopharma discovery methods cannot match. Absci works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners to generate, screen and optimize protein molecules for a wide range of therapeutic applications.

The core of Absci’s offering is its end-to-end discovery engine, which combines proprietary algorithms, high-throughput laboratory automation and a deep learning framework.