Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Purchases Shares of 1,660,866 Wave Life Sciences Ltd. (NASDAQ:WVE)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P bought a new stake in shares of Wave Life Sciences Ltd. (NASDAQ:WVE - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,660,866 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,545,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P owned approximately 1.09% of Wave Life Sciences at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WVE. Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Wave Life Sciences by 31.0% in the 3rd quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 10,047,520 shares of the company's stock worth $82,390,000 after acquiring an additional 2,378,159 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Wave Life Sciences by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,182,512 shares of the company's stock worth $39,368,000 after acquiring an additional 294,956 shares in the last quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Wave Life Sciences by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 3,162,369 shares of the company's stock worth $39,119,000 after acquiring an additional 280,859 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Wave Life Sciences by 2.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,321,248 shares of the company's stock valued at $19,034,000 after acquiring an additional 57,822 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Wave Life Sciences by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,269,664 shares of the company's stock worth $18,615,000 after purchasing an additional 283,419 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.73% of the company's stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Christian O. Henry sold 10,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.77, for a total value of $102,585.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,115 shares in the company, valued at $157,443.55. The trade was a 39.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Paul Bolno sold 169,025 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.57, for a total value of $1,617,569.25. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 338,351 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,238,019.07. This represents a 33.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 29.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wave Life Sciences Price Performance

WVE traded down $0.06 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $7.68. 565,866 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,134,792. The company has a market capitalization of $1.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.97 and a beta of -0.93. Wave Life Sciences Ltd. has a 1 year low of $4.25 and a 1 year high of $16.74. The business's 50 day moving average price is $10.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.75.

Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 4th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.34. Wave Life Sciences had a negative return on equity of 280.57% and a negative net margin of 66.50%. The company had revenue of $83.75 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.60 million. On average, analysts anticipate that Wave Life Sciences Ltd. will post -1.14 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WVE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Wave Life Sciences from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 8th. HC Wainwright reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Wave Life Sciences in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Wave Life Sciences in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. They set a "buy" rating and a $26.00 target price on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Wave Life Sciences has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $22.60.

About Wave Life Sciences

Wave Life Sciences Ltd., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, designs, develops, and commercializes ribonucleic acid (RNA) medicines through PRISM, a discovery and drug development platform. The company's RNA medicines platform, PRISM, combines multiple modalities, chemistry innovation, and deep insights into human genetics to deliver scientific breakthroughs that treat both rare and prevalent disorders.