Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI)

Absci Corporation (NASDAQ:ABSI) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 11,273 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 403% compared to the typical volume of 2,241 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Absci

In other Absci news, insider Andreas Busch acquired 100,000 shares of Absci stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 12th. The stock was bought at an average price of $2.29 per share, for a total transaction of $229,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 421,446 shares in the company, valued at approximately $965,111.34. This trade represents a 31.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Absci

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. HB Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Absci by 28.4% during the first quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 2,862 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of Absci by 41.9% in the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 12,317 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 3,638 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Absci by 45.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 11,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 3,678 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in shares of Absci by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 92,148 shares of the company’s stock worth $322,000 after acquiring an additional 4,892 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Absci by 91.2% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 11,287 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 5,385 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 52.05% of the company’s stock.

Absci Price Performance

ABSI traded down $0.91 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $6.43. 2,495,904 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,173,918. The company has a market cap of $1.00 billion, a PE ratio of -7.78 and a beta of 2.44. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.55. Absci has a one year low of $2.24 and a one year high of $7.39.

Absci (NASDAQ:ABSI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $0.22 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.39 million. Absci had a negative net margin of 6,450.76% and a negative return on equity of 66.32%. On average, research analysts expect that Absci will post -0.77 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on ABSI shares. BTIG Research started coverage on shares of Absci in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $9.00 price objective for the company. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Absci from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $7.00 price target on shares of Absci in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Leerink Partners started coverage on shares of Absci in a research report on Thursday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $12.00 price target for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $4.10 price target on shares of Absci in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Absci currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $8.52.

Absci Company Profile

Absci Corporation (NASDAQ: ABSI) is a biotechnology company that applies machine learning, synthetic biology and automation to accelerate the discovery and development of protein-based therapeutics. The company’s Integrated Drug Creation® (IDC®) platform is designed to identify and produce novel antibody and enzyme candidates at speeds and scales that traditional biopharma discovery methods cannot match. Absci works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners to generate, screen and optimize protein molecules for a wide range of therapeutic applications.

The core of Absci’s offering is its end-to-end discovery engine, which combines proprietary algorithms, high-throughput laboratory automation and a deep learning framework.