Roth Mkm Reiterates Buy Rating for Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ)

Key Points

• Roth Mkm reiterated a "Buy" rating on Equillium with a $12.00 price target, implying about a 499.1% upside from the current share price.
• Analyst consensus is a "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $7.80; current coverage counts include 1 Strong Buy, 4 Buy, 1 Hold and 1 Sell.
• Equillium trades around $2.00 with a market cap of ~$126.6M, and insiders have been net sellers recently — the COO sold 120,312 shares and insiders disposed of 487,468 shares (~$990k) over the past three months, cutting the COO's stake by ~65.8%.

Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by analysts at Roth Mkm in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $12.00 target price on the stock. Roth Mkm's price target indicates a potential upside of 499.10% from the company's current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on EQ. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Equillium in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Equillium from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of Equillium in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $10.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James Financial began coverage on shares of Equillium in a research note on Monday. They set a "strong-buy" rating and a $6.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Equillium to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $7.80.

Equillium Price Performance

NASDAQ:EQ traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $2.00. The stock had a trading volume of 102,242 shares, compared to its average volume of 511,174. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1.47. Equillium has a one year low of $0.27 and a one year high of $2.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $126.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.08 and a beta of 1.75.

Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.03. Equities research analysts anticipate that Equillium will post 0.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Christine Zedelmayer sold 120,312 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.50, for a total value of $300,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 62,586 shares of the company's stock, valued at $156,465. This represents a 65.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 487,468 shares of company stock valued at $990,467 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 31.60% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Equillium

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. purchased a new stake in shares of Equillium in the third quarter worth $608,000. Aberdeen Group plc grew its stake in Equillium by 523.6% during the fourth quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 2,366,688 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,668,000 after acquiring an additional 1,987,162 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Equillium during the third quarter valued at $398,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new position in Equillium during the third quarter valued at $99,000. Finally, ADAR1 Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Equillium during the third quarter valued at $7,951,000. 27.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Equillium Company Profile

Equillium, Inc NASDAQ: EQ is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel immunotherapies to treat severe autoimmune diseases and prevent organ transplant rejection. The company's lead therapeutic candidate, EQ001 (itolizumab), is a humanized monoclonal antibody that modulates T-cell activation by targeting the CD6 receptor. Equillium's pipeline also includes additional biologic candidates aimed at addressing indications such as acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and lupus nephritis.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in La Jolla, California, Equillium in-licensed itolizumab from Biocon Limited, leveraging the antibody's established safety profile in earlier clinical studies.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.