Analysts Set Equillium, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQ) Target Price at $9.00

Equillium, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQ) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $9.00.

EQ has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Equillium from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 14th. Roth Mkm began coverage on shares of Equillium in a research report on Friday, March 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $12.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on shares of Equillium in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $5.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Equillium in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Equillium to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th.

Insider Activity at Equillium

In other Equillium news, COO Christine Zedelmayer sold 185,937 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total transaction of $327,249.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 191,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $336,941.44. This represents a 49.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 487,468 shares of company stock valued at $990,467 over the last quarter. 31.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Aberdeen Group plc purchased a new stake in Equillium in the third quarter worth $543,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Equillium by 59.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,313,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,879,000 after purchasing an additional 489,855 shares in the last quarter. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new position in Equillium in the 3rd quarter worth $99,000. Two Sigma Investments LP purchased a new stake in shares of Equillium in the 3rd quarter worth about $190,000. Finally, ADAR1 Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Equillium in the 3rd quarter worth about $7,951,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.05% of the company’s stock.

Equillium Trading Up 6.1%

Equillium stock opened at $1.91 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $120.77 million, a PE ratio of -3.82 and a beta of 1.75. Equillium has a 1-year low of $0.27 and a 1-year high of $2.70. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $1.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1.45.

Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.03. Research analysts forecast that Equillium will post 0.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Equillium Company Profile

Equillium, Inc (NASDAQ: EQ) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel immunotherapies to treat severe autoimmune diseases and prevent organ transplant rejection. The company’s lead therapeutic candidate, EQ001 (itolizumab), is a humanized monoclonal antibody that modulates T-cell activation by targeting the CD6 receptor. Equillium’s pipeline also includes additional biologic candidates aimed at addressing indications such as acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and lupus nephritis.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in La Jolla, California, Equillium in-licensed itolizumab from Biocon Limited, leveraging the antibody’s established safety profile in earlier clinical studies.