Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) Rating Lowered to Hold at Leerink Partnrs

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Leerink Partnrs from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Sunday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Merus in a report on Saturday, September 27th. William Blair downgraded shares of Merus from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Truist Financial downgraded shares of Merus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $88.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, September 29th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Merus from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $101.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Lifesci Capital reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $97.00 price target on shares of Merus in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.12.

Merus Stock Down 0.0%

Merus stock opened at $94.27 on Friday. Merus has a twelve month low of $33.19 and a twelve month high of $94.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $70.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $56.48. The company has a market capitalization of $7.13 billion, a P/E ratio of -17.14 and a beta of 1.26.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.23) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.17) by ($1.06). The business had revenue of $8.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.77 million. Merus had a negative return on equity of 50.28% and a negative net margin of 685.64%. Equities analysts expect that Merus will post -3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Merus

In other Merus news, COO Peter B. Silverman sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 48,500 shares of company stock valued at $2,792,500. 3.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Merus

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of MRUS. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merus by 2,153.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 631 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 603 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Merus by 49.0% during the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 64,374 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,710,000 after acquiring an additional 21,166 shares in the last quarter. Avanza Fonder AB bought a new stake in Merus during the first quarter worth about $118,000. Net Worth Advisory Group bought a new stake in Merus during the first quarter worth about $213,000. Finally, Moody Aldrich Partners LLC boosted its stake in Merus by 273.4% during the first quarter. Moody Aldrich Partners LLC now owns 108,281 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $4,558,000 after acquiring an additional 79,286 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

About Merus

Merus N.V., a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, engages in the development of antibody therapeutics in the Netherlands. Its bispecific antibody candidate pipeline includes Zenocutuzumab (MCLA-128), which is in a phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer and castration-resistant prostate cancer, as well as in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors that harbor Neuregulin 1.