Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Erasca Call Options (NASDAQ:ERAS)

Erasca, Inc. (NASDAQ:ERAS) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors bought 4,075 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 104% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,001 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Ebun Garner sold 120,000 shares of Erasca stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.59, for a total transaction of $670,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 25,076 shares in the company, valued at approximately $140,174.84. This trade represents a 82.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 14.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Erasca by 594.8% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 396,202 shares of the company’s stock worth $543,000 after purchasing an additional 339,177 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in Erasca by 130.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 36,362 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 20,558 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Erasca during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $87,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Erasca during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Erasca by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,835,642 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,143,000 after acquiring an additional 77,790 shares during the last quarter. 67.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Erasca from $5.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley set a $10.00 price target on shares of Erasca in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Mizuho started coverage on Erasca in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $16.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $10.00 target price on shares of Erasca in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Erasca in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Erasca presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.22.

Erasca Trading Down 3.3%

NASDAQ ERAS opened at $11.56 on Thursday. Erasca has a 12-month low of $1.01 and a 12-month high of $12.48. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $6.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.70. The stock has a market cap of $3.58 billion, a P/E ratio of -25.69 and a beta of 1.21.

Erasca (NASDAQ:ERAS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.11) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11). As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Erasca will post -0.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Erasca Company Profile

Erasca, Inc is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of precision medicines for patients with cancer. The company focuses on small molecule therapeutics that target critical signaling pathways involved in tumor growth and survival, with a primary emphasis on inhibitors of the MAPK pathway. Erasca’s approach is designed to deliver oral, targeted therapies that address both oncogene‐driven and immuno‐oncology indications, aiming to improve outcomes for patients with unmet medical needs.

Erasca’s pipeline comprises multiple development candidates, including small molecule inhibitors engineered to disrupt key nodes in cancer cell signaling.