Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) Raised to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

EQ has been the subject of a number of other reports. Roth Mkm started coverage on shares of Equillium in a research note on Friday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $12.00 price objective for the company. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Equillium to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Equillium in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus began coverage on shares of Equillium in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. They set a “buy” rating and a $5.00 price objective on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $6.00.

Equillium Stock Up 19.3%

Shares of NASDAQ EQ opened at $2.47 on Friday. Equillium has a twelve month low of $0.27 and a twelve month high of $2.63. The firm has a market cap of $150.40 million, a PE ratio of -3.98 and a beta of 1.81. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $1.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1.42.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Equillium news, COO Christine Zedelmayer sold 181,219 shares of Equillium stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.00, for a total value of $362,438.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 62,586 shares in the company, valued at $125,172. The trade was a 74.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 485,589 shares of company stock worth $863,704 over the last 90 days. 31.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Equillium

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

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.