Gritstone bio’s (GRTS) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at B. Riley

B. Riley reiterated their buy rating on shares of Gritstone bio (NASDAQ:GRTS) in a research report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $3.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $6.00.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on GRTS. HC Wainwright dropped their price target on shares of Gritstone bio from $7.00 to $4.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 13th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Gritstone bio from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock a market outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd.

Gritstone bio Stock Performance

Gritstone bio stock opened at $0.80 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.79. Gritstone bio has a 1-year low of $0.67 and a 1-year high of $3.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 2.00. The stock has a market cap of $87.03 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.65 and a beta of 0.64.

Gritstone bio (NASDAQ:GRTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported ($0.34) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.30) by ($0.04). Gritstone bio had a negative net margin of 926.13% and a negative return on equity of 232.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.74 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.30) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Gritstone bio will post -0.94 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gritstone bio

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Redmile Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Gritstone bio by 24.0% during the 3rd quarter. Redmile Group LLC now owns 8,509,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,636,000 after purchasing an additional 1,648,900 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Gritstone bio by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,733,791 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,166,000 after buying an additional 317,499 shares in the last quarter. Artal Group S.A. acquired a new stake in Gritstone bio during the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,650,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Gritstone bio during the 1st quarter worth approximately $636,000. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP lifted its holdings in Gritstone bio by 405.6% during the 4th quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 90,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $184,000 after buying an additional 72,201 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 48.46% of the company’s stock.

About Gritstone bio

Gritstone bio, Inc, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, engages in developing vaccine-based immunotherapy candidates against cancer and infectious diseases. Its primary product candidate is GRANITE, an individualized immunotherapy candidate, which is in Phase 2/3 clinical trials for the treatment of microsatellite stable colorectal cancers; and has completed Phase 1/2 clinical trials for treating solid tumors.