The Goldman Sachs Group Initiates Coverage on Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS)

Stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $73.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 70.04% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on MRUS. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of Merus in a research note on Wednesday. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $67.00 target price on shares of Merus in a report on Thursday, July 25th. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Merus in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $72.00 price objective for the company. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Merus from $93.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised shares of Merus to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.45.

Merus Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of Merus stock opened at $42.93 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $50.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.92. Merus has a 12-month low of $22.26 and a 12-month high of $61.61. The stock has a market cap of $2.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.87 and a beta of 1.12.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The biotechnology company reported ($0.95) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.90) by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $11.77 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.11 million. Merus had a negative return on equity of 38.89% and a negative net margin of 680.61%. On average, analysts forecast that Merus will post -3.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Merus

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merus by 10.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,873,926 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $343,421,000 after purchasing an additional 648,994 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Merus by 73.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,887,514 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $144,260,000 after buying an additional 1,224,573 shares during the period. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C increased its position in shares of Merus by 3.8% in the second quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 2,749,401 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $162,682,000 after acquiring an additional 100,000 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in shares of Merus by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,398,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $141,937,000 after acquiring an additional 150,000 shares during the period. Finally, Samlyn Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Merus by 11.9% in the 2nd quarter. Samlyn Capital LLC now owns 2,324,195 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $137,523,000 after acquiring an additional 247,605 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

About Merus

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.