Guggenheim Reiterates Buy Rating for Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS)

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Guggenheim in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $109.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $111.00. Guggenheim’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 139.61% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Merus in a report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Merus in a report on Thursday, November 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $73.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Merus in a report on Thursday, October 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $72.00 price objective for the company. Finally, HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Merus in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $85.27.

Merus Stock Performance

Shares of Merus stock opened at $45.49 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.52 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a fifty day moving average of $49.86 and a 200 day moving average of $51.85. Merus has a fifty-two week low of $22.27 and a fifty-two week high of $61.61.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The biotechnology company reported ($0.95) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.90) by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $11.77 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.11 million. Merus had a negative return on equity of 38.89% and a negative net margin of 680.61%. Analysts forecast that Merus will post -3.89 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merus by 10.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,873,926 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $343,421,000 after acquiring an additional 648,994 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Merus by 73.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,887,514 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $144,260,000 after acquiring an additional 1,224,573 shares during the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C lifted its holdings in shares of Merus by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 2,749,401 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $162,682,000 after acquiring an additional 100,000 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Merus by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,398,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $141,937,000 after acquiring an additional 150,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Samlyn Capital LLC raised its position in Merus by 11.9% in the 2nd quarter. Samlyn Capital LLC now owns 2,324,195 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $137,523,000 after purchasing an additional 247,605 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

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.