Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR)

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR) in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $8.00 price objective on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on ESPR. StockNews.com lowered shares of Esperion Therapeutics from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Bank of America cut Esperion Therapeutics from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and lowered their price target for the company from $2.90 to $2.50 in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $16.00 price objective on shares of Esperion Therapeutics in a report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $8.83.

Esperion Therapeutics Stock Down 3.9 %

Shares of ESPR opened at $2.22 on Friday. Esperion Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $0.70 and a twelve month high of $3.40. The company has a market capitalization of $420.60 million, a P/E ratio of -2.24 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $2.31 and a 200 day moving average of $2.40.

Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.08) by $0.42. The business had revenue of $137.74 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.11 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Esperion Therapeutics will post -0.05 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ESPR. Bellevue Group AG raised its stake in Esperion Therapeutics by 136.5% during the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 9,944,064 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $26,650,000 after purchasing an additional 5,739,800 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 2.7% in the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 9,129,647 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $24,467,000 after buying an additional 238,544 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 71.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,826,546 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $23,655,000 after acquiring an additional 3,688,796 shares during the last quarter. Armistice Capital LLC purchased a new position in Esperion Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at $9,568,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its holdings in Esperion Therapeutics by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 1,128,149 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,373,000 after acquiring an additional 11,494 shares during the last quarter. 47.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Esperion Therapeutics Company Profile

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc, a pharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes medicines for the treatment of patients with elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Its marketed products include NEXLETOL (bempedoic acid) and NEXLIZET (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe) tablets that are oral, once-daily, non-statin medicines for the treatment of primary hyperlipidemia in adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease who require additional lowering of LDL-C.