Humacyte (NASDAQ:HUMA) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume Following Analyst Upgrade

Humacyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:HUMA) saw an uptick in trading volume on Monday after Benchmark raised their price target on the stock from $15.00 to $17.00. Benchmark currently has a buy rating on the stock. 4,531,517 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 65% from the previous session’s volume of 2,740,317 shares.The stock last traded at $4.41 and had previously closed at $4.64.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on HUMA. EF Hutton Acquisition Co. I upgraded Humacyte to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $13.00 target price on shares of Humacyte in a research report on Friday, September 20th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price target on shares of Humacyte in a research note on Friday, October 18th. D. Boral Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of Humacyte in a research report on Friday. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 target price (up from $12.00) on shares of Humacyte in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Humacyte news, CEO Laura E. Niklason sold 261,369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.40, for a total transaction of $1,150,023.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,730,884 shares in the company, valued at $7,615,889.60. This trade represents a 13.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Brady W. Dougan sold 427,459 shares of Humacyte stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.34, for a total value of $1,855,172.06. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,992,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,646,378.02. This trade represents a 17.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,500,000 shares of company stock worth $6,606,799 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Humacyte

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HUMA. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Humacyte by 177.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 236,742 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,288,000 after acquiring an additional 151,458 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Humacyte by 9.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,040,218 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,101,000 after purchasing an additional 179,120 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd raised its stake in Humacyte by 48.8% in the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 34,049 shares of the company’s stock worth $185,000 after buying an additional 11,172 shares in the last quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Humacyte during the third quarter worth $109,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Humacyte by 30.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 254,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,384,000 after acquiring an additional 60,087 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 44.71% of the company’s stock.

Humacyte Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $585.24 million, a P/E ratio of -3.47 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.81.

About Humacyte

Humacyte, Inc engages in the development and manufacture of off-the-shelf, implantable, and bioengineered human tissues for the treatment of diseases and conditions across a range of anatomic locations in multiple therapeutic areas. The company using its proprietary and scientific technology platform to engineer and manufacture human acellular vessels (HAVs) to be implanted into patient without inducing a foreign body response or leading to immune rejection.