Merus’ (MRUS) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at HC Wainwright

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by investment analysts at HC Wainwright in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $65.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 38.03% from the company’s current price.

MRUS has been the topic of several other research reports. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Merus in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Merus from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Merus from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Merus in a report on Thursday, March 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $69.00 target price for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Merus from $40.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.33.

Merus Price Performance

NASDAQ MRUS opened at $47.09 on Thursday. Merus has a 1-year low of $18.85 and a 1-year high of $52.03. The company has a market cap of $2.76 billion, a PE ratio of -15.49 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $45.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.35.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.59) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.83) by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $7.89 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.94 million. Merus had a negative net margin of 352.56% and a negative return on equity of 50.61%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Merus will post -3.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Merus

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Commodore Capital LP grew its position in shares of Merus by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Commodore Capital LP now owns 4,747,373 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $130,553,000 after buying an additional 319,301 shares in the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C grew its holdings in Merus by 27.9% during the 3rd quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 3,876,938 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $91,418,000 after acquiring an additional 845,000 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in shares of Merus by 26.0% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,637,309 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $100,026,000 after purchasing an additional 751,609 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Merus by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,735,247 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $64,497,000 after purchasing an additional 60,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RTW Investments LP raised its holdings in shares of Merus by 18.9% in the 4th quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 2,373,625 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $65,275,000 after purchasing an additional 376,861 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

Merus Company Profile

Merus N.V., a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, engages in the development of antibody therapeutics in the Netherlands. Its bispecific antibody candidate pipeline includes Zenocutuzumab (MCLA-128), which is in a phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer and castration-resistant prostate cancer, as well as in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors that harbor Neuregulin 1.