Short Interest in BioLife Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLFS) Increases By 59.1%

BioLife Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLFS) saw a significant increase in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totaling 4,544,348 shares, an increase of 59.1% from the July 15th total of 2,856,425 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,208,090 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.1 days. Approximately 9.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLFS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of BioLife Solutions from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 25th. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $31.00 price target (down from $32.00) on shares of BioLife Solutions in a report on Monday, July 27th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of BioLife Solutions from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Benchmark cut shares of BioLife Solutions from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Maxim Group downgraded BioLife Solutions from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.38.

BioLife Solutions Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of BLFS opened at $34.94 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.12 and a beta of 1.93. BioLife Solutions has a 1 year low of $17.86 and a 1 year high of $35.46. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $29.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.57.

BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The medical equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.03 by $0.88. The company had revenue of $28.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.80 million. BioLife Solutions had a return on equity of 2.70% and a net margin of 53.29%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that BioLife Solutions will post 0.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Casdin Partners Master Fund, L sold 650,000 shares of BioLife Solutions stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.70, for a total value of $15,405,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 4,757,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $112,744,810.50. The trade was a 12.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLFS. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in BioLife Solutions by 27.4% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,180,824 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $125,273,000 after purchasing an additional 1,113,972 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of BioLife Solutions by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,932,191 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $95,080,000 after buying an additional 332,747 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of BioLife Solutions by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,087,386 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $74,653,000 after acquiring an additional 119,868 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of BioLife Solutions by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,505,593 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $36,405,000 after acquiring an additional 49,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BioLife Solutions by 11.3% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,080,371 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $23,271,000 after acquiring an additional 109,959 shares during the period. 93.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BioLife Solutions Company Profile

BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS) specializes in biopreservation and cold chain workflow solutions for cell and gene therapies, regenerative medicine and other advanced biologics. The company develops and markets proprietary cryopreservation media and technology platforms designed to maintain cell viability and functionality during processing, storage and transport. BioLife’s product portfolio addresses critical steps in the manufacturing and distribution of cell-based products, helping life science researchers and biopharmaceutical manufacturers protect and preserve living cells.

The company’s flagship offerings include CryoStor, a family of serum-free cryopreservation media; HypoThermosol, a hypothermic storage solution for short-term cell and tissue preservation; and the ThawSTAR system, an automated cell thawing instrument that delivers controlled and reproducible warming of frozen cell therapies.