GeneDx (NASDAQ:WGS) Shares Up 7.5% – Time to Buy?

GeneDx Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:WGS)’s stock price shot up 7.5% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $90.82 and last traded at $85.71. 698,305 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 13% from the average session volume of 799,035 shares. The stock had previously closed at $79.71.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on WGS shares. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of GeneDx in a report on Thursday, May 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $88.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on GeneDx from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised GeneDx from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. TD Securities decreased their price target on GeneDx from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut GeneDx from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.75.

GeneDx Trading Up 13.1%

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $75.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $81.47. The company has a current ratio of 3.25, a quick ratio of 3.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a PE ratio of -63.79 and a beta of 1.94.

GeneDx (NASDAQ:WGS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.17. GeneDx had a negative net margin of 11.69% and a positive return on equity of 10.17%. The business had revenue of $87.12 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.90 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that GeneDx Holdings Corp. will post 0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at GeneDx

In other GeneDx news, CFO Kevin Feeley sold 370 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.26, for a total transaction of $26,366.20. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,105 shares in the company, valued at $292,522.30. This represents a 8.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Keith A. Meister purchased 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $56.01 per share, with a total value of $5,601,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,008,629 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $168,513,310.29. This trade represents a 3.44% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 120,319 shares of company stock worth $11,207,272. Insiders own 29.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GeneDx

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in GeneDx in the fourth quarter worth $51,496,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new position in shares of GeneDx during the fourth quarter worth approximately $48,458,000. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of GeneDx by 336.9% in the 4th quarter. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC now owns 755,564 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,073,000 after acquiring an additional 582,619 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of GeneDx in the 1st quarter valued at $44,614,000. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of GeneDx by 3,054.5% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 436,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,694,000 after purchasing an additional 423,050 shares in the last quarter. 61.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About GeneDx

GeneDx Holdings Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides genomics-related diagnostic and information services. The company offers Centrellis, an AI-driven health intelligence platform that integrates digital tools and artificial intelligence allowing scientists to ingest and synthesize clinical and genomic data to deliver comprehensive health insights.