Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR) Receives “Buy” Rating from HC Wainwright

Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR – Get Rating)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities researchers at HC Wainwright in a research report issued on Monday, TipRanks reports. They presently have a $200.00 price target on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on VIR. Zacks Investment Research cut Vir Biotechnology from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday. TheStreet downgraded Vir Biotechnology from a “c-” rating to a “d+” rating in a report on Monday, March 28th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Vir Biotechnology from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $28.00 in a report on Thursday, March 3rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on shares of Vir Biotechnology from $80.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.29.

Shares of VIR traded down $0.53 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $19.82. 38,511 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,642,421. Vir Biotechnology has a 1-year low of $20.10 and a 1-year high of $58.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.62 billion, a PE ratio of 5.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.33 and a beta of -0.97. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $23.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.54.

Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 24th. The company reported $3.92 EPS for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $2.60 by $1.32. Vir Biotechnology had a return on equity of 57.20% and a net margin of 48.26%. The firm had revenue of $812.75 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $622.90 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.83) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 46771.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Vir Biotechnology will post 5.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other Vir Biotechnology news, insider Phillip Pang sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.52, for a total transaction of $172,600.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Howard Horn sold 2,393 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.93, for a total value of $76,408.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 30,087 shares of company stock valued at $956,840 over the last three months. 22.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its position in Vir Biotechnology by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 5,761,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $250,721,000 after purchasing an additional 149,170 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Vir Biotechnology by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,308,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,248,000 after buying an additional 148,420 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in shares of Vir Biotechnology by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 3,915,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $163,942,000 after purchasing an additional 15,809 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in Vir Biotechnology by 22.6% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,620,753 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,731,000 after buying an additional 483,261 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Vir Biotechnology by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,528,107 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,852,000 after acquiring an additional 240,241 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

About Vir Biotechnology (Get Rating)

Vir Biotechnology, Inc, a commercial-stage immunology company, develops therapeutic products to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases. It develops Sotrovimab (VIR-7832), a SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing mAbs to treat and prevent COVID-19 infection under the Xevudy brand; VIR-2218 and VIR-3434 for the treatment of hepatitis B virus; VIR-2482 for the prevention of influenza A virus; and VIR-1111 for the prevention of human immunodeficiency virus.

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