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Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment bought 967K shares of Ginkgo Bioworks on January 25, 2022.
Ginkgo Bioworks Announces Acquisition of Massachusetts COVID-19 Testing Provider Project Beacon COVID-19 LLC
On January 19, 2022, Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, announced the acquisition of Project Beacon COVID-19 LLC (Project Beacon), a Boston-based social benefit organization focused on helping to increase the capacity, availability, accessibility, and affordability of COVID-19 testing. Under the terms of the deal, Ginkgo acquired Project Beacon’s assets and will assume responsibility for Project Beacon’s ongoing operations, providing COVID-19 monitoring tools to communities in Massachusetts and other areas.
“As we embark on a new wave of the pandemic and grapple with the spread of the Omicron variant, large-scale testing will be critical to help keep kids in schools and mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” said Matt McKnight, Chief Commercial Officer at Ginkgo Bioworks, who is leading Ginkgo’s public health and biosecurity efforts. “Integrating Project Beacon’s capabilities with our Concentric by Ginkgo offering will enable us to further empower communities in Massachusetts, and beyond with the tools they need to make important public health decisions.”
Ginkgo has supported widespread COVID-19 monitoring throughout the pandemic through its biosecurity and public health initiative, Concentric by Ginkgo. Today, Concentric provides COVID-19 monitoring services for over 280,000 individuals per week through its programs in K-12 schools, correctional facilities, airports, and other community settings. Concentric conducted over 3 million tests in the second half of 2021.
Concentric and Project Beacon share a common goal of making COVID-19 testing accessible to the communities that need it the most. Concentric will integrate Project Beacon’s partner and customer relationships, digital platform, and several key personnel into its broader efforts with this acquisition.
Project Beacon was launched by F-Prime Capital, GV, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to help organizations in Massachusetts and its surrounding areas implement affordable and accessible COVID-19 testing, focusing on serving public needs and promoting equitable access. Since then, Project Beacon has partnered with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Department of Public Health, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Executive Office of Technology Services and Security to serve the state’s residents through its Express COVID-19 Testing Sites, K-12 testing platform, and online service that lists COVID-19 vaccination sites throughout Massachusetts. Project Beacon has also supported testing efforts for dozens of other organizations, including schools, universities, congregate care providers, and employers. In total, Project Beacon has completed more than 1.5 million tests for its community members.
“The mission of Project Beacon has always been to support Massachusetts residents by providing low-cost, convenient testing,” said Muz Mansuri, Executive Director of Project Beacon and Venture Partner at F-Prime Capital. “We have no profit motive, and we didn’t seek a capital return in this transaction. We supported this combination with Concentric by Ginkgo because we believe it will allow us to serve more people around the state and nation. We are excited to continue providing these critical services to all those we currently work with and hope to further expand community access with the added reach of Concentric.”
Concentric is building next-generation biosecurity and public health platform to provide pathogen biomonitoring at scale. This acquisition is an essential step towards that goal. Concentric’s lab network currently has enough contracted and validated labs to serve tens of millions of individuals with pooled tests every week. Concentric stands ready to invest further to expand its biosecurity and public health efforts.
Ginkgo is building a platform to enable customers to program cells as quickly as we can program computers. The company’s platform enables biotechnology applications across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to industrial chemicals to pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo has also actively supported many COVID-19 response efforts, including K-12 pooled testing, vaccine manufacturing optimization, and therapeutics discovery. For more information, visit https://www.ginkgobioworks.com.
Ginkgo Bioworks sees 2021 revenue above guidance
On January 12, 2022, Ginkgo Bioworks announced preliminary 2021 performance updates. Ginkgo expects to meet or exceed its key 2021 targets for the commencement of new cell programs and revenue from its cell programming and biosecurity offerings. Preliminary unaudited Foundry revenue is expected to exceed the previously disclosed outlook of $100M for the full year 2021, inclusive of both downstream value share and services revenue. Preliminary unaudited Biosecurity revenue is expected to exceed the previous outlook of $110M for the full year 2021 by over 50%. “In our Q3 earnings call, Ginkgo updated our 2021 outlook on the number of new cell programs, Foundry revenue, and Biosecurity revenue – I’m happy to report that based on preliminary unaudited estimates for the full year, we expect to meet or beat all of those, with Biosecurity revenue exceeding our outlook by over 50%,” said CEO Jason Kelly. “Scale is fundamental to our strategy and competitive advantage, and with over $1.6B in gross proceeds from our public debut, we believe we are well-positioned to continue to play offense in the coming years. The past year was transformational for Ginkgo, and I am grateful for the dedication of our team and the commitment of our partners in contributing to our success in 2021.”
📺 Ginkgo Bioworks CEO on the business of programmable DNA
📉 DNA Stock Technical Analysis
Both the long and short-term trends are negative. It is better to avoid buying stocks with negative trends. The rising large players volume is likely from Cathie Wood’s buying disclosed on January 25, 2022. DNA is currently trading near the lower end of its 52-week range, which is not a good sign. DNA is lagging the S&P500 Index, which is trading in the middle of its 52-week range. Volume is considerably higher in the last couple of days. In combination with the strong move down this is a bad signal.
There is resistance at 8.54 from a trend line in the daily time frame.
The technical rating of DNA is bad and it also does not present a quality setup at the moment. DNA stock has a Setup Rating of 3 out of 10. Price movement has been a little bit too volatile to find a nice entry and exit point. It is probably a good idea to wait for a consolidation first. Click here to sign up for email alerts on when DNA stock consolidates and has a Setup Rating of 8 or higher.
