Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB) Stock Price Down 4.7% – What’s Next?

Shares of Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (NASDAQ:PACB) traded down 4.7% on Wednesday. The company traded as low as $2.07 and last traded at $2.1350. Approximately 6,137,362 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 27% from the average session volume of 8,357,454 shares. The stock had previously closed at $2.24.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on PACB. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $3.00 price target (up from $2.00) on shares of Pacific Biosciences of California in a research note on Thursday, November 5th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Pacific Biosciences of California from $3.05 to $2.70 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Pacific Biosciences of California from $1.25 to $2.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Pacific Biosciences of California from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Pacific Biosciences of California from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $2.57.

Pacific Biosciences of California Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $1.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.62. The firm has a market cap of $664.98 million, a P/E ratio of -5.06 and a beta of 2.21.

Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 4th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.11) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $40.56 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.31 million. Pacific Biosciences of California had a negative return on equity of 5,752.12% and a negative net margin of 81.31%. On average, equities analysts predict that Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. will post -0.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider James Gibson, II sold 661,815 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.11, for a total value of $2,058,244.65. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,083,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,370,767.28. This trade represents a 37.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Mark Van Oene sold 26,911 shares of Pacific Biosciences of California stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.13, for a total transaction of $30,409.43. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 2,705,853 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,057,613.89. The trade was a 0.98% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 3.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Essential Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pacific Biosciences of California during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Choreo LLC bought a new position in Pacific Biosciences of California in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Interchange Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Pacific Biosciences of California during the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Corient Private Wealth LP acquired a new position in Pacific Biosciences of California during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Pinegrove Venture Partners LLC acquired a new position in Pacific Biosciences of California during the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,584.

Pacific Biosciences of California Company Profile

Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (NASDAQ: PACB) is a life sciences technology company that develops and supplies DNA sequencing systems, consumables and related software. The company is best known for its single-molecule, real-time (SMRT) sequencing technology, which produces highly accurate long-read data used to analyze complex genomes, structural variation, genetic disease and other biological information. PacBio’s product portfolio includes the Revio long-read sequencing system, the Sequel II and Sequel IIe platforms, sequencing consumables and the associated data-analysis software.