Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at Truist Financial

Equities researchers at Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) in a report released on Thursday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $69.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. Truist Financial’s target price suggests a potential upside of 54.19% from the company’s current price.

MRUS has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of Merus from $42.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Merus from $40.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. StockNews.com cut shares of Merus from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Merus from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, HC Wainwright increased their price target on shares of Merus from $48.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.55.

Merus Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of MRUS stock opened at $44.75 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $42.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.90. The stock has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.72 and a beta of 1.12. Merus has a twelve month low of $17.15 and a twelve month high of $52.03.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.09) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.71) by ($0.38). Merus had a negative net margin of 352.56% and a negative return on equity of 50.61%. The company had revenue of $8.94 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.43 million. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Merus will post -3.32 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Merus

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in Merus by 37.7% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,253 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in Merus by 2.1% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 26,440 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $486,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Merus by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,889 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,196,000 after purchasing an additional 638 shares during the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp Et Al increased its stake in Merus by 3.1% in the third quarter. Tudor Investment Corp Et Al now owns 23,638 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $557,000 after purchasing an additional 716 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in Merus by 29.4% in the fourth quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 3,530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 803 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

About Merus

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.