William Blair Reiterates Outperform Rating for Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS)

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at William Blair in a research note issued on Monday,RTT News reports.

MRUS has been the topic of several other research reports. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on Merus in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $84.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America cut their price objective on Merus from $73.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 10th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $83.00 target price on shares of Merus in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $109.00 price target on shares of Merus in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Merus in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.31.

Merus Price Performance

MRUS opened at $45.05 on Monday. Merus has a one year low of $33.19 and a one year high of $61.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.41 and a beta of 1.02. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.62.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.41) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.89) by $0.48. The business had revenue of $9.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.57 million. Merus had a negative return on equity of 38.89% and a negative net margin of 680.61%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Merus will post -3.85 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Merus

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Merus by 2,153.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 631 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 603 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in shares of Merus in the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in Merus by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,400 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. purchased a new position in shares of Merus in the 4th quarter worth $60,000. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Merus during the 4th quarter valued at about $76,000. Institutional investors 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.