Gritstone bio’s (GRTS) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at B. Riley

B. Riley reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Gritstone bio (NASDAQ:GRTS) in a research note released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $3.00 price objective on the stock, down from their prior price objective of $6.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. HC Wainwright reduced their price objective on shares of Gritstone bio from $7.00 to $4.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 13th. JMP Securities upped their price target on Gritstone bio from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock a market outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd.

Gritstone bio Stock Performance

GRTS traded down $0.02 during trading on Friday, reaching $0.80. 1,735,845 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,337,872. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 2.00. Gritstone bio has a fifty-two week low of $0.67 and a fifty-two week high of $3.33. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $1.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1.78.

Gritstone bio (NASDAQ:GRTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported ($0.34) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.30) by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.74 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 million. Gritstone bio had a negative return on equity of 232.42% and a negative net margin of 926.13%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.30) EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Gritstone bio will post -0.94 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GRTS. Forum Financial Management LP raised its holdings in Gritstone bio by 78.0% in the 3rd quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 17,799 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 7,799 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in Gritstone bio by 85.2% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 46,237 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,000 after buying an additional 21,271 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in Gritstone bio in the 1st quarter valued at $63,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Gritstone bio in the 1st quarter valued at $70,000. Finally, Klingman & Associates LLC acquired a new position in shares of Gritstone bio in the 1st quarter valued at $89,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 48.46% of the company’s stock.

About Gritstone bio

Gritstone bio, Inc, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, engages in developing vaccine-based immunotherapy candidates against cancer and infectious diseases. Its primary product candidate is GRANITE, an individualized immunotherapy candidate, which is in Phase 2/3 clinical trials for the treatment of microsatellite stable colorectal cancers; and has completed Phase 1/2 clinical trials for treating solid tumors.