Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) Reaches New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $52.00 to $61.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Merus traded as high as $57.80 and last traded at $58.00, with a volume of 2057397 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $44.07.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Merus in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $69.00 price objective on the stock. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Merus in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $66.00 price objective on shares of Merus in a research report on Monday, May 13th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Merus from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Merus in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Merus presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $56.80.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Merus

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MRUS. Commodore Capital LP grew its stake in Merus by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Commodore Capital LP now owns 4,747,373 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $130,553,000 after buying an additional 319,301 shares in the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C grew its stake in Merus by 27.9% during the third quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 3,876,938 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $91,418,000 after buying an additional 845,000 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in Merus by 26.0% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,637,309 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $100,026,000 after buying an additional 751,609 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Merus by 2.2% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,735,247 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $64,497,000 after buying an additional 60,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RTW Investments LP grew its stake in Merus by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 2,373,625 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $65,275,000 after buying an additional 376,861 shares in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Merus Stock Up 36.1 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.66 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.29.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.59) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.83) by $0.24. Merus had a negative net margin of 390.36% and a negative return on equity of 44.13%. The company had revenue of $7.89 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.94 million. On average, analysts expect that Merus will post -3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Merus Company Profile

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.