Piper Sandler Initiates Coverage on Crescent Biopharma (NASDAQ:CBIO)

Stock analysts at Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Crescent Biopharma (NASDAQ:CBIO) in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage set a “strong-buy” rating and a $35.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 244.83% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Crescent Biopharma in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $35.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e-)” rating on shares of Crescent Biopharma in a report on Monday, December 29th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $32.00 price target on Crescent Biopharma in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Crescent Biopharma from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.86.

Crescent Biopharma Stock Performance

NASDAQ CBIO opened at $10.15 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $12.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.76. The company has a market cap of $140.98 million, a P/E ratio of -0.48 and a beta of 1.35. Crescent Biopharma has a one year low of $9.81 and a one year high of $37.00.

Crescent Biopharma (NASDAQ:CBIO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.27) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.01) by ($0.26). As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Crescent Biopharma will post -0.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Crescent Biopharma

In other Crescent Biopharma news, Director Fairmount Funds Management Llc acquired 1,360,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $13.41 per share, for a total transaction of $18,237,600.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 2,747,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,848,883.06. The trade was a 97.99% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 4.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crescent Biopharma

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CBIO. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Crescent Biopharma in the 2nd quarter valued at $437,000. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Crescent Biopharma in the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,520,000. Commodore Capital LP purchased a new stake in Crescent Biopharma in the 2nd quarter valued at about $7,322,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. acquired a new position in Crescent Biopharma in the second quarter valued at about $1,629,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in Crescent Biopharma during the second quarter worth about $149,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.19% of the company’s stock.

About Crescent Biopharma

Crescent Biopharma, Inc (NASDAQ: CBIO) is a clinical‐stage immuno‐oncology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies for patients with solid tumors. The company’s research strategy centers on combination approaches that enhance anti‐tumor immune responses by simultaneously targeting multiple pathways implicated in immune evasion and tumor growth.

The company’s lead candidate, CPB-201, is a bifunctional fusion protein designed to block programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) while neutralizing transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), with the goal of restoring T-cell activity and reducing tumor fibrosis.