Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) Given “Buy” Rating at Bank of America

Bank of America reiterated their buy rating on shares of Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) in a research report report published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a $76.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock.

MRUS has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Merus from $90.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Merus from $84.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on shares of Merus from $54.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Merus from $69.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Merus from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merus currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $73.60.

Merus Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MRUS opened at $56.78 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $49.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.29. The stock has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.50 and a beta of 1.10. Merus has a fifty-two week low of $19.81 and a fifty-two week high of $61.61.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.59) earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.94 million. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Merus will post -3.1 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Merus news, VP Harry Shuman sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 14,300 shares of company stock worth $792,792. Corporate insiders own 4.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Great Point Partners LLC acquired a new position in Merus in the 4th quarter valued at about $550,000. RTW Investments LP raised its stake in Merus by 90.0% in the 3rd quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 1,996,764 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $47,084,000 after purchasing an additional 945,871 shares during the last quarter. HealthInvest Partners AB acquired a new position in Merus in the 4th quarter valued at about $669,000. Trexquant Investment LP raised its stake in Merus by 138.4% in the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 40,489 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,113,000 after purchasing an additional 23,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC acquired a new position in Merus in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,320,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

About Merus

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.