William Blair Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS)

William Blair reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) in a research note released on Friday,RTT News reports. William Blair also issued estimates for Merus’ FY2028 earnings at ($3.58) EPS.

Several other research firms have also commented on MRUS. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Merus in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $73.00 price objective for the company. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Merus in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on Merus in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $84.00 price objective for the company. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Merus from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Merus in a research note on Friday, February 7th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $91.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Merus has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $85.77.

Merus Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of Merus stock opened at $47.09 on Friday. Merus has a twelve month low of $37.77 and a twelve month high of $61.61. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $41.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.83. The firm has a market cap of $3.22 billion, a PE ratio of -11.92 and a beta of 1.11.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.41) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.89) by $0.48. Merus had a negative return on equity of 38.89% and a negative net margin of 680.61%. The firm had revenue of $9.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.57 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Merus will post -3.85 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Boxer Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Merus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $79,895,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Merus by 73.6% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,887,514 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $144,260,000 after purchasing an additional 1,224,573 shares during the period. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Merus by 56.8% in the fourth quarter. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,125,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $89,356,000 after purchasing an additional 770,000 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in Merus by 10.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,873,926 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $343,421,000 after purchasing an additional 648,994 shares during the period. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP purchased a new stake in Merus in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,399,000. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.