Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Raymond James

Raymond James upgraded shares of Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. Raymond James currently has $22.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $13.00.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on WVE. Mizuho restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective on shares of Wave Life Sciences in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Wave Life Sciences in a research note on Friday, September 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $13.00 price target for the company. HC Wainwright lifted their target price on Wave Life Sciences from $15.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Wave Life Sciences from $5.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, B. Riley increased their price target on Wave Life Sciences from $11.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wave Life Sciences has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.56.

Wave Life Sciences Stock Up 4.8 %

NASDAQ:WVE opened at $15.31 on Wednesday. Wave Life Sciences has a 52 week low of $3.50 and a 52 week high of $15.92. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $7.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $6.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -29.44 and a beta of -1.10.

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 the consensus estimate of ($0.16) by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $19.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.80 million. Wave Life Sciences had a negative return on equity of 1,395.99% and a negative net margin of 66.50%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.20) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Wave Life Sciences will post -1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Wave Life Sciences

In other news, CEO Paul Bolno sold 48,366 shares of the business’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 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. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Wave Life Sciences news, CFO Kyle Moran sold 17,146 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.00, for a total value of $154,314.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 19,777 shares in the company, valued at $177,993. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Paul Bolno sold 48,366 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.78, for a total value of $279,555.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 359,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,075,361.02. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 364,822 shares of company stock valued at $4,645,768. Corporate insiders own 29.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Wave Life Sciences

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WVE. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Wave Life Sciences in the second quarter valued at approximately $668,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Wave Life Sciences by 39.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,834,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,316,000 after acquiring an additional 521,665 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC raised its position in Wave Life Sciences by 62.2% in the 2nd quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 908,096 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,531,000 after purchasing an additional 348,300 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Wave Life Sciences in the 4th quarter valued at $174,000. Finally, Capstone Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Wave Life Sciences by 9.0% during the 1st quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC now owns 54,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $336,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the period. 89.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.