Royal Bank of Canada Boosts Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) Price Target to $7.00

Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) had its price target hoisted by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada from $5.00 to $7.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “sector perform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price suggests a potential downside of 17.45% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on WVE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Wave Life Sciences in a research note on Friday, September 27th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $13.00 target price for the company. Mizuho reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective on shares of Wave Life Sciences in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. HC Wainwright raised their target price on Wave Life Sciences from $15.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, B. Riley boosted their price target on Wave Life Sciences from $11.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $15.00.

Wave Life Sciences Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WVE traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $8.48. The company had a trading volume of 135,268 shares, compared to its average volume of 987,730. The stock has a market cap of $1.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.31 and a beta of -1.10. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $6.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $5.90. Wave Life Sciences has a 12 month low of $3.50 and a 12 month high of $9.92.

Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported ($0.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.16) by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $19.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.80 million. Wave Life Sciences had a negative net margin of 66.50% and a negative return on equity of 1,395.99%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.20) earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Wave Life Sciences will post -1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Paul Bolno sold 48,366 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.78, for a total transaction of $279,555.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 359,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,075,361.02. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Paul Bolno sold 48,366 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.78, for a total value of $279,555.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 359,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,075,361.02. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Plc Gsk bought 2,791,930 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $8.00 per share, for a total transaction of $22,335,440.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 16,775,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,205,528. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 29.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Wave Life Sciences

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WVE. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in Wave Life Sciences by 50.2% during the first quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 7,334 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 2,451 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Wave Life Sciences during the second quarter valued at $53,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Wave Life Sciences in the second quarter valued at about $74,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in Wave Life Sciences by 13.6% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 15,887 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 1,905 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in Wave Life Sciences in the 2nd quarter worth about $104,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.73% of the company’s stock.

About Wave Life Sciences

Wave Life Sciences Ltd., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, designs, develops, and commercializes ribonucleic acid (RNA) medicines through PRISM, a discovery and drug development platform. The company's RNA medicines platform, PRISM, combines multiple modalities, chemistry innovation, and deep insights into human genetics to deliver scientific breakthroughs that treat both rare and prevalent disorders.