Traders Purchase High Volume of Esperion Therapeutics Call Options (NASDAQ:ESPR)

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPR) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 2,720 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 124% compared to the average daily volume of 1,216 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Esperion Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Esperion Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at approximately $4,446,000. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 24,482,258 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $53,861,000 after buying an additional 1,136,245 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 48.6% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 3,119,253 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,862,000 after buying an additional 1,020,243 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 45.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,629,980 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,586,000 after buying an additional 506,428 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Esperion Therapeutics by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,454,216 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,399,000 after purchasing an additional 385,099 shares in the last quarter. 47.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ESPR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Esperion Therapeutics from $4.00 to $3.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $16.00 price objective on shares of Esperion Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, April 25th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $4.00 target price (down previously from $7.00) on shares of Esperion Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their target price on Esperion Therapeutics from $5.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.25.

Esperion Therapeutics Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of Esperion Therapeutics stock opened at $1.20 on Tuesday. Esperion Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $0.69 and a 52 week high of $3.94. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $0.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $1.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $237.84 million, a P/E ratio of -1.88 and a beta of 0.67.

Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $65.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $54.97 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Esperion Therapeutics will post -0.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Esperion Therapeutics

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc, a pharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes medicines for the treatment of patients with elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Its marketed products include NEXLETOL (bempedoic acid) and NEXLIZET (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe) tablets that are oral, once-daily, non-statin medicines for the treatment of primary hyperlipidemia in adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease who require additional lowering of LDL-C.