Spark Therapeutics Inc (ONCE) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Spark Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ONCE) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twenty-three ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $79.91.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. William Blair cut Spark Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. SunTrust Banks cut Spark Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 25th. Raymond James cut Spark Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 25th. ValuEngine raised Spark Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Spark Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $114.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 26th.

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Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pearl River Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Spark Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Quantamental Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Spark Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $126,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in shares of Spark Therapeutics by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 3,460 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 485 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Spark Therapeutics by 103.4% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,718 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $141,000 after acquiring an additional 1,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in shares of Spark Therapeutics by 1,045.4% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,253 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $177,000 after acquiring an additional 2,969 shares during the last quarter.

NASDAQ ONCE traded up $0.07 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $113.92. 1,472,900 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,810,465. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.33 billion, a PE ratio of -53.99 and a beta of 2.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 10.71 and a quick ratio of 10.36. Spark Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $34.53 and a 12-month high of $114.20.

Spark Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ONCE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 19th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.75) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.86) by ($0.89). The firm had revenue of $13.15 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.76 million. Spark Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 121.78% and a negative return on equity of 14.66%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 47.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($1.63) EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Spark Therapeutics will post -4.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Spark Therapeutics

Spark Therapeutics, Inc focuses on the development of gene therapy products for patients suffering from debilitating genetic diseases. Its products include LUXTURNA (voretigene neparvovec), which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of genetic blinding conditions caused by mutations in the RPE65 gene; and SPK-CHM that is in Phase I/II clinical trial for the treatment of choroideremia.

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