Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) Receives "Market Perform" Rating from Lifesci Capital

Key Points

• Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) has received a "market perform" rating from Lifesci Capital, with a target price of $97.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.56% from its current price.
• Several analysts have adjusted their ratings on Merus, including Needham & Company downgrading it from "buy" to "hold," while Citigroup and Barclays also lowered their target prices.
• Merus reported a quarterly loss of ($2.23) EPS, missing consensus estimates, with revenues of $8.83 million against expectations of $9.77 million.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market perform" rating reiterated by research analysts at Lifesci Capital in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $97.00 target price on the biotechnology company's stock. Lifesci Capital's target price would suggest a potential upside of 3.56% from the company's current price.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on MRUS. Needham & Company LLC lowered Merus from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $96.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $97.00 target price on Merus in a report on Monday. Barclays reissued an "equal weight" rating and set a $97.00 target price (down from $112.00) on shares of Merus in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup lowered Merus from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $101.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "equal weight" rating and set a $97.00 target price (up from $95.00) on shares of Merus in a report on Monday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $93.63.

Merus Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MRUS opened at $93.67 on Tuesday. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $67.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.84. Merus has a one year low of $33.19 and a one year high of $94.56. The firm has a market cap of $7.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.03 and a beta of 1.19.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.23) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.17) by ($1.06). Merus had a negative net margin of 685.64% and a negative return on equity of 50.28%. The firm had revenue of $8.83 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.77 million. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Merus will post -3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Peter B. Silverman sold 25,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $1,500,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold 48,500 shares of company stock worth $2,792,500 in the last ninety days. 3.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Merus

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sender Co & Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Merus during the second quarter valued at approximately $684,000. Sofinnova Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Merus during the second quarter valued at approximately $21,280,000. Oxford Asset Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Merus during the second quarter valued at approximately $627,000. Octagon Capital Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Merus by 26.3% during the second quarter. Octagon Capital Advisors LP now owns 389,000 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $20,461,000 after acquiring an additional 81,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perceptive Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Merus by 2.6% during the second quarter. Perceptive Advisors LLC now owns 708,176 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $37,250,000 after acquiring an additional 17,691 shares in the last quarter. 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.

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