uniQure’s (QURE) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at HC Wainwright

HC Wainwright reiterated their buy rating on shares of uniQure (NASDAQ:QURE) in a research note published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $25.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Mizuho decreased their target price on uniQure from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded uniQure from a buy rating to a neutral rating and cut their price target for the stock from $63.00 to $8.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. StockNews.com upgraded uniQure to a sell rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of uniQure in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, uniQure has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $31.91.

uniQure Price Performance

uniQure stock traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $4.90. 71,687 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 914,806. uniQure has a 52-week low of $4.25 and a 52-week high of $22.48. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $5.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $5.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 8.68 and a current ratio of 8.85. The company has a market cap of $234.41 million, a P/E ratio of -0.75 and a beta of 0.98.

uniQure (NASDAQ:QURE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.53) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.54) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $6.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.20 million. uniQure had a negative return on equity of 99.31% and a negative net margin of 1,947.09%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that uniQure will post -4.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Pierre Caloz sold 9,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.47, for a total transaction of $61,173.85. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 85,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $554,110.21. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Matthew C. Kapusta sold 27,904 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.35, for a total transaction of $177,190.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 440,839 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,799,327.65. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Pierre Caloz sold 9,455 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.47, for a total value of $61,173.85. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 85,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $554,110.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 53,265 shares of company stock valued at $339,845. 4.74% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of uniQure

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in QURE. Vestal Point Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of uniQure during the 4th quarter valued at $26,572,000. Barclays PLC raised its stake in uniQure by 527.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 989,562 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,641,000 after acquiring an additional 831,929 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. raised its stake in uniQure by 667.9% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 766,521 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,143,000 after acquiring an additional 666,696 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in uniQure by 173.5% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 706,670 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $4,784,000 after acquiring an additional 448,319 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc purchased a new position in uniQure in the 4th quarter worth $2,711,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.83% of the company’s stock.

About uniQure

uniQure N.V. develops treatments for patients suffering from rare and other devastating diseases. It offers HEMGENIX that has completed Phase III HOPE-B pivotal trial for the treatment of hemophilia B. The company also develops AMT-130, a gene therapy that is in Phase I/II clinical study for the treatment of Huntington's disease.