Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) Stock Price

CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) had its price target boosted by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $30.00 to $32.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “underweight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 32.07% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on CRSP. StockNews.com raised shares of CRISPR Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $84.00 price target on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics from $53.00 to $49.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics from $98.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 price objective on shares of CRISPR Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.50.

CRISPR Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of CRSP stock opened at $47.11 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $46.25. CRISPR Therapeutics has a one year low of $36.52 and a one year high of $91.10. The company has a market capitalization of $4.02 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.37 and a beta of 1.67.

CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.44) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.15) by $0.71. CRISPR Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 118.13% and a negative return on equity of 12.15%. On average, research analysts expect that CRISPR Therapeutics will post -5.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at CRISPR Therapeutics

In other news, CEO Samarth Kulkarni sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.10, for a total transaction of $826,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 181,540 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,002,854. The trade was a 7.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 4.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of CRISPR Therapeutics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in CRISPR Therapeutics by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 43,128 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 2,891 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in CRISPR Therapeutics by 499.9% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $215,000 after acquiring an additional 4,544 shares in the last quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC now owns 49,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,931,000 after buying an additional 2,346 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 947,301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,283,000 after buying an additional 122,695 shares during the period. Finally, Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of CRISPR Therapeutics by 22.7% in the 4th quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $394,000 after buying an additional 1,856 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.20% of the company’s stock.

CRISPR Therapeutics Company Profile

CRISPR Therapeutics is a gene-editing company focused on developing transformative gene-based medicines for serious diseases using its proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 platform. CRISPR/Cas9 is a revolutionary gene-editing technology that allows for precise, directed changes to genomic DNA. CRISPR Therapeutics has established a portfolio of therapeutic programs across a broad range of disease areas including hemoglobinopathies, oncology, regenerative medicine and rare diseases.