Shares of Crispr Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) stock are up by about 15% today following continued purchases by Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest and an initiation of coverage from Cantor Fitzgerald’s Olivia Brayer.
Yesterday, Wood purchased a total of 56,492 shares of CRSP stock through the ARK Innovation ETF (NYSEMKT:ARKK) and the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (BATS:ARKG). The day before that, ARK purchased 5,241 shares through the same ETFs.
Following yesterday’s purchase, ARK now owns a total of 7.05 million shares of Crispr, equivalent to an 8.98% ownership stake. Among all ARK ETFs, CRSP has the 14th largest position with a 2.45% portfolio allocation.
With that in mind, let’s get into the details of Cantor’s coverage initiation.
Cathie Wood Buys CRSP Stock Before Cantor Price Target Initiation
Cantor analyst Olivia Brayer has initiated coverage of Crispr with an “overweight” rating and a price target of $72. The price target implies an upside of about 44% from current price levels.
The analyst characterizes Crispr as a “leading gene editing company” with a reasonable possibility of commercializing the first-ever CRISPR gene therapy this year. The therapy will act as “a functional cure for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia,” with the analyst assigning a 90% probability of success. As a result, Brayer believes that the risk/reward scenario for CRSP is at an attractive level and that 2023 could be a “transformational” year for the company.
On April 3, the company announced that it had completed the rolling biologics license applications (BLAs) to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The BLAs seek to gain approval for the investigational treatment exagamglogene autotemcel in order to treat sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia.
CRSP has an average price target of $84.19 among all 26 analysts with coverage of the stock. That implies an upside of about 68%. However, insider activity over the past three years paints a different picture. According to SECForm4.com, insiders have purchased $0 of CRSP since April 2020. Since then, they have sold $213.22 million worth of shares. The past few insider sales are all attributed to CEO Samarth Kulkarni, who has been steadily selling shares received from the exercise of options through a prearranged 10b5-1 plan.
On the date of publication, Eddie Pan did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
