Cartesian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RNAC) Receives $38.50 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Cartesian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RNAC) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $38.50.

RNAC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. HC Wainwright decreased their price objective on Cartesian Therapeutics from $40.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Wall Street Zen lowered Cartesian Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Finally, BTIG Research increased their target price on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th.

Cartesian Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of RNAC opened at $7.42 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $192.95 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.76 and a beta of 0.38. Cartesian Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $5.98 and a 1 year high of $20.00. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.45.

Cartesian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RNAC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($1.38) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.81) by ($0.57). The company had revenue of $0.45 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.18 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cartesian Therapeutics will post 4.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cartesian Therapeutics news, CFO Blaine Davis sold 10,591 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.82, for a total transaction of $72,230.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 121,220 shares in the company, valued at $826,720.40. The trade was a 8.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 60.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in Cartesian Therapeutics by 27.5% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 13,006 shares of the company’s stock valued at $171,000 after buying an additional 2,805 shares in the last quarter. Miller Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $121,000. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics by 12.5% in the second quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC now owns 9,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 1,023 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in Cartesian Therapeutics by 114.0% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 82,630 shares of the company’s stock worth $859,000 after purchasing an additional 44,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 683 Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Cartesian Therapeutics by 46.0% in the second quarter. 683 Capital Management LLC now owns 219,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,275,000 after purchasing an additional 69,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.95% of the company’s stock.

About Cartesian Therapeutics

Cartesian Therapeutics, trading on NASDAQ under the symbol RNAC, is a clinical‐stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of messenger RNA (mRNA)-based therapeutics. The company leverages a proprietary RNA delivery platform to induce the production of therapeutic proteins within patients, aiming to address a range of diseases through in vivo expression of disease-modifying agents. Cartesian’s technology is designed to optimize mRNA stability, translation efficiency and targeted delivery, with potential applications spanning oncology, autoimmune disorders and rare genetic conditions.

At the core of Cartesian’s approach is a synthetic mRNA platform that incorporates proprietary lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations.