Jupiter Topco LLC Purchases Shares of 6,494,571 Equillium, Inc. $EQ

Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in Equillium, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQ) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 6,494,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,685,000. Jupiter Topco LLC owned 10.27% of Equillium at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EQ. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Equillium in the first quarter worth approximately $31,000. Virtu Financial LLC increased its position in Equillium by 133.4% during the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 23,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 13,591 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC acquired a new stake in Equillium during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp acquired a new stake in Equillium during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $100,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada bought a new position in Equillium during the 4th quarter worth approximately $124,000. 27.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Equillium

In other news, insider Stephen Connelly sold 200,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.16, for a total transaction of $632,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 793,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,505,880. The trade was a 20.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Christine Zedelmayer sold 14,584 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.93, for a total transaction of $42,731.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 62,586 shares in the company, valued at $183,376.98. This represents a 18.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 245,559 shares of company stock valued at $765,798 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 17.84% of the company’s stock.

Equillium Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of EQ opened at $2.39 on Friday. Equillium, Inc. has a 12-month low of $0.76 and a 12-month high of $3.54. The business’s fifty day moving average is $2.55 and its 200 day moving average is $2.29. The stock has a market cap of $151.55 million, a P/E ratio of -11.95 and a beta of 1.82.

Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by $0.01. On average, analysts expect that Equillium, Inc. will post -0.21 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on EQ. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $12.00 price objective on shares of Equillium in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Equillium in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of Equillium from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $1.00 to $6.00 in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Piper Sandler started coverage on shares of Equillium in a research report on Monday, July 13th. They set an “overweight” rating on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $5.00 price target on Equillium in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equillium currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.57.

Equillium 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.