Cartesian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RNAC) Price Target Raised to $42.00

Cartesian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RNAC) had its price target upped by Needham & Company LLC from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. HC Wainwright decreased their price target on Cartesian Therapeutics from $40.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, December 29th. BTIG Research boosted their price target on shares of Cartesian Therapeutics from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Cartesian Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cartesian Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.50.

Cartesian Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of RNAC opened at $8.20 on Friday. Cartesian Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $5.98 and a fifty-two week high of $20.12. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.56. The company has a market capitalization of $213.23 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.26 and a beta of 0.38.

Cartesian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RNAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($1.38) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.81) by ($0.57). The business had revenue of $0.45 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.18 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Cartesian Therapeutics will post 4.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Blaine Davis sold 10,591 shares of Cartesian Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.82, for a total transaction of $72,230.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly 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 SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 60.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cartesian Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. 683 Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cartesian Therapeutics by 46.0% in the 2nd quarter. 683 Capital Management LLC now owns 219,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,275,000 after buying an additional 69,000 shares during the period. Miller Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $121,000. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics by 12.5% during the 2nd quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC now owns 9,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 1,023 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cartesian Therapeutics by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 520,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,322,000 after purchasing an additional 24,356 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in Cartesian Therapeutics by 114.0% during the 2nd 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. 86.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cartesian Therapeutics Company Profile

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.