Morphic Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORF) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Morphic Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORF) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,680,000 shares, a decrease of 71.8% from the June 30th total of 5,960,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,020,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.8 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MORF has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $57.00 price target (up previously from $52.00) on shares of Morphic in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Morphic in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $57.00 price objective (down previously from $70.00) on shares of Morphic in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Morphic from $30.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Morphic currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.25.

Insider Transactions at Morphic

In other news, President Bruce Rogers sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.79, for a total value of $1,115,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 149,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,361,972.57. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, President Bruce Rogers sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.79, for a total value of $1,115,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 149,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,361,972.57. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel William Devaul sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.79, for a total value of $557,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 23,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,284,787.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 125,790 shares of company stock valued at $7,018,566 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 25.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Morphic

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Perceptive Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morphic during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,646,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in Morphic by 83.3% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 4,591,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,588,000 after buying an additional 2,086,617 shares in the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Morphic by 45.7% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 202,726 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,855,000 after buying an additional 63,634 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in Morphic by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,880,000 after buying an additional 115,975 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in Morphic in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,411,000. 94.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Morphic Stock Performance

Shares of Morphic stock traded up $0.06 on Thursday, reaching $56.61. 1,476,428 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,208,000. The company’s 50-day moving average is $37.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.17 and a beta of 1.50. Morphic has a 1-year low of $19.34 and a 1-year high of $62.08.

Morphic (NASDAQ:MORF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported ($0.91) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.96) by $0.05. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Morphic will post -4.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Morphic Company Profile

Morphic Holding, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, discovers and develops oral small-molecule integrin therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases, as well as fibrosis and cancer. Its lead product candidate MORF-057, an a4ß7-specific integrin inhibitor affecting inflammation is in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.