Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPR) Given Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. has received an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from five brokerages, with one hold and four buy recommendations.
• The company's stock has a 1-year target price averaging $7.00, despite recent adjustments from analysts lowering targets to as low as $4.00.
• Esperion reported a surprising earnings per share (EPS) of ($0.02), surpassing estimates, and had revenues of $82.39 million for the last quarter.

Shares of Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPR - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" by the five ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $7.00.

A number of research analysts recently commented on ESPR shares. HC Wainwright reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $16.00 price objective on shares of Esperion Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, June 17th. Wall Street Zen cut Esperion Therapeutics from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on Esperion Therapeutics from $5.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th.

Esperion Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of Esperion Therapeutics stock traded up $0.01 on Monday, hitting $2.22. The company's stock had a trading volume of 8,188,323 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,151,438. Esperion Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $0.69 and a 1 year high of $3.94. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $1.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.34. The company has a market capitalization of $447.60 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.53 and a beta of 0.82.

Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.15. Esperion Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 0.91% and a negative net margin of 35.84%.The firm had revenue of $82.39 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.55 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Esperion Therapeutics will post -0.29 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Esperion Therapeutics

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Two Seas Capital LP grew its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 43.6% during the second quarter. Two Seas Capital LP now owns 9,954,975 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $9,800,000 after purchasing an additional 3,024,104 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 46.2% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 5,312,252 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $5,206,000 after purchasing an additional 1,679,294 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,583,988 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $4,513,000 after purchasing an additional 137,691 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,616,200 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $7,956,000 after purchasing an additional 16,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 48.6% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 3,119,253 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $6,862,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,243 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 47.39% of the company's stock.

About Esperion Therapeutics

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc, a pharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes medicines for the treatment of patients with elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Its marketed products include NEXLETOL (bempedoic acid) and NEXLIZET (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe) tablets that are oral, once-daily, non-statin medicines for the treatment of primary hyperlipidemia in adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease who require additional lowering of LDL-C.