Silence Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SLN) Shares Up 6.8% – Still a Buy?

Silence Therapeutics PLC Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:SLN) shot up 6.8% on Friday. The stock traded as high as $10.10 and last traded at $10.1710. Approximately 223,778 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 606,657 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.52.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SLN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of Silence Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. They issued an “overweight” rating on the stock. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Silence Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Silence Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Silence Therapeutics from $25.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.50.

Silence Therapeutics Price Performance

The business’s 50-day moving average price is $12.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $623.34 million, a PE ratio of -8.09 and a beta of 1.45.

Silence Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SLN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by ($0.12). Silence Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 106.94% and a negative net margin of 8,943.86%. Equities analysts forecast that Silence Therapeutics PLC Sponsored ADR will post -1.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Silence Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SLN. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its stake in Silence Therapeutics by 29.6% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 115,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,273,000 after acquiring an additional 26,449 shares during the last quarter. AXQ Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Silence Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $138,000. 5AM Venture Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Silence Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at approximately $5,228,676. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Silence Therapeutics by 18.1% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 11,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698 shares during the period. Finally, Seven Fleet Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Silence Therapeutics by 6.2% during the first quarter. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP now owns 156,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $826,000 after purchasing an additional 9,159 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.73% of the company’s stock.

About Silence Therapeutics

Silence Therapeutics plc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing medicines that use RNA interference (RNAi) to selectively reduce the production of disease-causing proteins. The company’s approach is designed to act at the genetic level by targeting specific messenger RNA molecules before they are translated into proteins.

Silence’s research is supported by its proprietary mRNAi GOLD platform, which is intended to enable the development and delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA) medicines.