William Blair Upgrades Surrozen (NASDAQ:SRZN) to “Strong-Buy”

Surrozen (NASDAQ:SRZN) was upgraded by William Blair to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on SRZN. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on shares of Surrozen in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Surrozen in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Surrozen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Surrozen currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.00.

Surrozen Stock Down 2.1%

Surrozen stock opened at $23.50 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $272.83 million, a PE ratio of -0.58 and a beta of 0.52. Surrozen has a 52 week low of $10.73 and a 52 week high of $35.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $23.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.64.

Surrozen (NASDAQ:SRZN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.41) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.29) by $0.88. The business had revenue of $5.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.47 million. On average, research analysts expect that Surrozen will post -7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Surrozen

In other news, major shareholder Tcg Crossover Gp Ii, Llc sold 325,000 shares of Surrozen stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.25, for a total transaction of $6,906,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 574,047 shares in the company, valued at $12,198,498.75. The trade was a 36.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 31.74% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Surrozen

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Surrozen by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Surrozen during the 4th quarter worth $99,000. Citadel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Surrozen by 32.8% during the 3rd quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 13,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,424 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Surrozen during the fourth quarter worth $247,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Surrozen by 22.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,963 shares of the company’s stock worth $277,000 after purchasing an additional 5,702 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.57% of the company’s stock.

About Surrozen

Surrozen, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapeutic antibodies that target the Wnt signaling pathway for applications in tissue repair, regeneration and oncology. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in South San Francisco, California, the company leverages its proprietary SurroBody platform to design bispecific antibody molecules capable of modulating Wnt receptor activity with enhanced tissue specificity.

The SurroBody platform enables the generation of high-affinity, dual-binding antibodies engineered to either activate or inhibit Wnt signaling, a pathway critical to cell proliferation, differentiation and homeostasis.