Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires New Stake in GeneDx Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:WGS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of GeneDx Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:WGS - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 14,240 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $604,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.05% of GeneDx as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in GeneDx in the 2nd quarter worth $34,000. CWM LLC purchased a new stake in GeneDx in the third quarter worth about $89,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of GeneDx in the third quarter worth about $198,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in shares of GeneDx during the 3rd quarter valued at about $220,000. Finally, Palumbo Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of GeneDx during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $287,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.72% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder School Of Medicine At Mo Icahn sold 865,800 shares of GeneDx stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $64,935,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 2,866,833 shares in the company, valued at approximately $215,012,475. This trade represents a 23.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Katherine Stueland sold 18,006 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.18, for a total value of $1,407,709.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 53,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,154,485.20. This trade represents a 25.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,143,039 shares of company stock valued at $84,816,828 in the last quarter. 27.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WGS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of GeneDx from $34.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of GeneDx from $54.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Craig Hallum upped their target price on shares of GeneDx from $70.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $59.33.

GeneDx Price Performance

Shares of WGS stock traded up $10.47 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $89.61. The company had a trading volume of 1,259,011 shares, compared to its average volume of 808,279. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 2.27. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $76.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.66. GeneDx Holdings Corp. has a 52-week low of $2.80 and a 52-week high of $89.66. The company has a market capitalization of $2.46 billion, a P/E ratio of -28.81 and a beta of 2.02.

GeneDx (NASDAQ:WGS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.21) by $0.25. GeneDx had a negative net margin of 31.25% and a negative return on equity of 13.35%. The business had revenue of $76.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $64.98 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.82) EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 44.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that GeneDx Holdings Corp. will post -0.24 earnings per share for the current year.

GeneDx Company Profile

GeneDx Holdings Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides genomics-related diagnostic and information services. The company offers Centrellis, an AI-driven health intelligence platform that integrates digital tools and artificial intelligence allowing scientists to ingest and synthesize clinical and genomic data to deliver comprehensive health insights.