Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) Receives “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) in a report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $92.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on MRUS. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Merus from $84.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Merus from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on shares of Merus from $54.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Guggenheim raised their price target on shares of Merus from $57.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, William Blair restated an outperform rating on shares of Merus in a report on Monday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merus presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $80.90.

Merus Stock Down 1.7 %

MRUS stock opened at $59.17 on Friday. Merus has a 12-month low of $19.81 and a 12-month high of $61.61. The company has a market cap of $3.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.36 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50 day moving average of $50.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.04.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.59) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.83) by $0.24. Merus had a negative net margin of 390.36% and a negative return on equity of 44.13%. The company had revenue of $7.89 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.94 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Merus will post -3.1 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Merus news, COO Peter B. Silverman sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $600,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, VP Harry Shuman sold 6,000 shares of Merus stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.89, for a total transaction of $317,340.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,002 shares in the company, valued at approximately $370,335.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Peter B. Silverman sold 10,000 shares of Merus stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $600,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,300 shares of company stock worth $1,392,792 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 4.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Merus

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Commodore Capital LP boosted its position in shares of Merus by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Commodore Capital LP now owns 4,747,373 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $130,553,000 after acquiring an additional 319,301 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in Merus by 26.0% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,637,309 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $100,026,000 after purchasing an additional 751,609 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Merus by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,735,247 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $64,497,000 after purchasing an additional 60,135 shares during the last quarter. RTW Investments LP lifted its holdings in Merus by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 2,373,625 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $65,275,000 after purchasing an additional 376,861 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Braidwell LP lifted its holdings in Merus by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 1,901,337 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $44,834,000 after purchasing an additional 358,175 shares during the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Merus Company Profile

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.