Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) Lowered to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial assumed coverage on Merus in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. They set a buy rating and a $69.00 price target for the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a buy rating and issued a $66.00 price objective on shares of Merus in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Merus from $40.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. William Blair reissued an outperform rating on shares of Merus in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Merus from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $56.80.

Merus Price Performance

Shares of Merus stock opened at $59.99 on Wednesday. Merus has a one year low of $19.81 and a one year high of $61.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.66 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.29.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.59) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.83) by $0.24. The business had revenue of $7.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.94 million. Merus had a negative return on equity of 44.13% and a negative net margin of 390.36%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Merus will post -3.14 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Merus

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD purchased a new position in shares of Merus during the first quarter valued at approximately $53,377,000. RTW Investments LP raised its holdings in Merus by 90.0% in the 3rd quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 1,996,764 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $47,084,000 after acquiring an additional 945,871 shares during the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C raised its holdings in Merus by 27.9% in the 3rd quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 3,876,938 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $91,418,000 after acquiring an additional 845,000 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Merus by 26.0% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,637,309 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $100,026,000 after acquiring an additional 751,609 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Artal Group S.A. purchased a new position in Merus in the 1st quarter worth approximately $20,492,000. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.