Insider Selling: WAVE Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) Insider Sells 441,031 Shares of Stock

WAVE Life Sciences Ltd. (NASDAQ:WVE) insider Chris Francis sold 441,031 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.57, for a total transaction of $6,425,821.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 25,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,250. This trade represents a 94.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

WAVE Life Sciences Stock Down 5.1%

Shares of WVE traded down $1.08 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $20.23. 17,639,147 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,192,010. WAVE Life Sciences Ltd. has a 12 month low of $5.28 and a 12 month high of $21.73. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $8.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $7.90. The company has a market capitalization of $3.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -26.97 and a beta of -1.72.

WAVE Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.30) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $7.61 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.85 million. WAVE Life Sciences had a negative return on equity of 75.61% and a negative net margin of 111.64%. On average, analysts expect that WAVE Life Sciences Ltd. will post -1.14 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WVE has been the topic of several research reports. Wedbush lifted their price target on WAVE Life Sciences from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised WAVE Life Sciences from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $9.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating on shares of WAVE Life Sciences in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $28.00 price target on shares of WAVE Life Sciences in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of WAVE Life Sciences from $16.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.46.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On WAVE Life Sciences

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Handelsbanken Fonder AB bought a new position in shares of WAVE Life Sciences during the 2nd quarter valued at $330,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of WAVE Life Sciences by 33.1% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,569,015 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,199,000 after acquiring an additional 390,078 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in WAVE Life Sciences by 97.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 78,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $637,000 after acquiring an additional 38,870 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio bought a new position in WAVE Life Sciences in the first quarter valued at about $406,000. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its position in WAVE Life Sciences by 29.7% in the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 621,378 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,039,000 after purchasing an additional 142,109 shares during the last quarter. 89.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.