Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 30,392 Shares of Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRDN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRDN) by 17.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 208,836 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 30,392 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.26% of Viridian Therapeutics worth $2,815,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRDN. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Viridian Therapeutics by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,881,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,776,000 after buying an additional 698,434 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Viridian Therapeutics by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,595,049 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,087,000 after buying an additional 174,952 shares in the last quarter. Deep Track Capital LP boosted its position in shares of Viridian Therapeutics by 20.6% during the fourth quarter. Deep Track Capital LP now owns 4,522,741 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,701,000 after acquiring an additional 771,796 shares during the last quarter. Tang Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Viridian Therapeutics by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Tang Capital Management LLC now owns 2,492,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,789,000 after acquiring an additional 250,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Viridian Therapeutics by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,286,994 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,842,000 after acquiring an additional 84,255 shares during the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on VRDN. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Viridian Therapeutics from $31.00 to $27.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $36.00 price target on shares of Viridian Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Viridian Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Viridian Therapeutics from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, JMP Securities lowered their target price on Viridian Therapeutics from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.56.

Viridian Therapeutics Trading Down 3.1%

Shares of VRDN stock opened at $16.52 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.35 billion, a PE ratio of -4.29 and a beta of 0.39. Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $9.90 and a 1 year high of $27.20. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $14.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 19.49 and a quick ratio of 19.49.

Viridian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VRDN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.87) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.95) by $0.08. Viridian Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 70.61% and a negative net margin of 102,092.39%. The company had revenue of $0.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.16 million. The business’s revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. will post -4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Viridian Therapeutics Profile

Viridian Therapeutics, Inc, a biotechnology company, discover and develops treatments for serious and rare diseases. The company's product pipeline includes VRDN-001, a monoclonal antibody targeting insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor that is in Phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of thyroid eye disease (TED); and VRDN-003, a next generation IGF-1R humanized monoclonal antibodies targeting IGF-1R and incorporating half-life extension technology for the treatment of TED.