Surrozen, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRZN) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Key Points

• Short interest rose 25.8% in April to 434,571 shares (about 5.5% of float), leaving a short-interest ratio of roughly 3.1 days based on average daily volume.
• Major insider buying: Tcg Crossover Gp II bought 106,658 shares at $24.69, boosting its stake to 736,554 shares, and insiders have purchased 199,091 shares in the last 90 days (insiders own 31.74% of the stock).
• Weak quarterly results—Surrozen reported EPS of ($7.59) vs. ($1.29) expected and minimal revenue, though analysts' consensus remains a "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $38.00.

Surrozen, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRZN - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 434,571 shares, a growth of 25.8% from the March 31st total of 345,450 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 138,931 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days. Approximately 5.5% of the company's shares are short sold.

Insider Activity

In other Surrozen news, major shareholder Tcg Crossover Gp Ii, Llc bought 106,658 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 24th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $24.69 per share, for a total transaction of $2,633,386.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 736,554 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,185,518.26. This represents a 16.93% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders purchased a total of 199,091 shares of company stock worth $4,880,263 in the last ninety days. 31.74% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Surrozen

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Surrozen by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,500 shares of the company's stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC raised its stake in Surrozen by 32.8% in the third quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 13,875 shares of the company's stock worth $179,000 after buying an additional 3,424 shares in the last quarter. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new position in Surrozen in the fourth quarter worth approximately $99,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC raised its stake in Surrozen by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 74,645 shares of the company's stock worth $1,687,000 after buying an additional 5,621 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Surrozen by 22.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,963 shares of the company's stock worth $277,000 after buying an additional 5,702 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.57% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on SRZN shares. TD Cowen started coverage on Surrozen in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Surrozen in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. HC Wainwright reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $36.00 price target (up from $32.00) on shares of Surrozen in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Surrozen in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Surrozen from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $38.00.

Surrozen Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SRZN opened at $30.98 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $355.96 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.93 and a beta of 0.52. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $27.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.71. Surrozen has a 52-week low of $5.90 and a 52-week high of $33.96.

Surrozen (NASDAQ:SRZN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 23rd. The company reported ($7.59) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.29) by ($6.30). The business had revenue of $0.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.66 million. Surrozen had a negative return on equity of 4,055.04% and a negative net margin of 7,476.67%. Analysts forecast that Surrozen will post -4.04 earnings per share for the current year.

About Surrozen

Surrozen, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapeutic antibodies that target the Wnt signaling pathway for applications in tissue repair, regeneration and oncology. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in South San Francisco, California, the company leverages its proprietary SurroBody platform to design bispecific antibody molecules capable of modulating Wnt receptor activity with enhanced tissue specificity.

The SurroBody platform enables the generation of high-affinity, dual-binding antibodies engineered to either activate or inhibit Wnt signaling, a pathway critical to cell proliferation, differentiation and homeostasis.

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