Equillium’s (EQ) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Roth Capital

Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by analysts at Roth Capital in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $12.00 price objective on the stock. Roth Capital’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 436.43% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on EQ. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of Equillium from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $1.00 to $6.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Clear Str raised shares of Equillium to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Equillium from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Equillium from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Equillium in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.57.

Equillium Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EQ traded up $0.02 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $2.24. The stock had a trading volume of 186,344 shares, compared to its average volume of 605,804. The firm has a market cap of $141.85 million, a P/E ratio of -11.20 and a beta of 1.81. Equillium has a fifty-two week low of $0.76 and a fifty-two week high of $3.54. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.32.

Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by $0.01. Equities analysts expect that Equillium will post -0.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Equillium

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EQ. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Equillium by 59.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,313,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,879,000 after purchasing an additional 489,855 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP bought a new stake in shares of Equillium during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $190,000. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equillium in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $7,951,000. Virtu Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Equillium by 133.4% in the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 23,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 13,591 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equillium during the third quarter worth $178,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.05% of the company’s stock.

About Equillium

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.