Jefferies Financial Group Begins Coverage on BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS)

Stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $22.00 price target on the medical equipment provider’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target suggests a potential upside of 27.02% from the company’s previous close.

BioLife Solutions Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ BLFS opened at $17.32 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.83 and a current ratio of 2.86. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $17.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.07. BioLife Solutions has a fifty-two week low of $8.92 and a fifty-two week high of $24.50. The company has a market cap of $784.60 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.39 and a beta of 1.67.

BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The medical equipment provider reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. BioLife Solutions had a negative return on equity of 13.36% and a negative net margin of 46.37%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that BioLife Solutions will post -0.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BioLife Solutions news, CEO Greef Roderick De sold 2,642 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.76, for a total transaction of $44,279.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 439,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,372,673.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other BioLife Solutions news, CFO Troy Wichterman sold 2,419 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.76, for a total transaction of $40,542.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 64,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,088,059.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Greef Roderick De sold 2,642 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.76, for a total value of $44,279.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 439,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,372,673.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 32,419 shares of company stock valued at $550,058 over the last quarter. 2.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BioLife Solutions

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BLFS. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of BioLife Solutions by 144.0% in the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 13,313 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 7,856 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in shares of BioLife Solutions by 38.6% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 24,924 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $567,000 after purchasing an additional 6,937 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of BioLife Solutions by 55.4% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 6,195 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $141,000 after purchasing an additional 2,209 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its position in shares of BioLife Solutions by 16.7% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 25,851 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $588,000 after purchasing an additional 3,703 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in BioLife Solutions by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,712,680 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $84,390,000 after acquiring an additional 57,623 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.24% of the company’s stock.

About BioLife Solutions

BioLife Solutions, Inc develops, manufactures, and markets bioproduction tools and services for the cell and gene therapy (CGT) industry in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. The company's products are used in the basic and applied research, and commercial manufacturing of biologic-based therapies.