Silence Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SLN) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Silence Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:SLN) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $45.00 to $49.00. The stock had previously closed at $19.00, but opened at $20.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Silence Therapeutics shares last traded at $19.56, with a volume of 4,998 shares.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Silence Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday. Chardan Capital upped their price target on shares of Silence Therapeutics from $42.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday.

Institutional Trading of Silence Therapeutics

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SLN. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Silence Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at about $110,000. Vivo Capital LLC acquired a new position in Silence Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at about $8,862,000. Parkman Healthcare Partners LLC increased its stake in Silence Therapeutics by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. Parkman Healthcare Partners LLC now owns 232,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,046,000 after buying an additional 40,063 shares during the period. Redmile Group LLC acquired a new position in Silence Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at about $43,798,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC acquired a new position in Silence Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at about $13,575,000. 98.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Silence Therapeutics Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $568.67 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.38 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.99.

Silence Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SLN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 16th. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by $0.18. The company had revenue of $15.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.53 million. Silence Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 131.44% and a negative return on equity of 79.90%. Sell-side analysts predict that Silence Therapeutics plc will post -1.52 EPS for the current year.

About Silence Therapeutics

Silence Therapeutics plc, a biotechnology company, focuses on the discovery and development novel molecules incorporating short interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) to inhibit the expression of specific target genes in hematology, cardiovascular, and rare diseases. The company's mRNAi GalNAc Oligonucleotide Discovery platform consists of precision engineered product candidates designed to target specific disease-associated genes in the liver.