Insider Selling: Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) Insider Sells 200,000 Shares of Stock

Equillium, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQ) insider Stephen Connelly sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.16, for a total transaction of $632,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 793,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,505,880. This represents a 20.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Stephen Connelly also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, June 5th, Stephen Connelly sold 30,975 shares of Equillium stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.94, for a total value of $91,066.50.

Equillium Price Performance

EQ stock traded down $0.23 on Friday, reaching $2.94. 1,143,124 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 595,254. Equillium, Inc. has a one year low of $0.27 and a one year high of $3.45. The company has a market cap of $185.89 million, a P/E ratio of -9.19 and a beta of 1.77. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.70.

Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.02). On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Equillium, Inc. will post -0.24 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equillium

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of EQ. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP bought a new stake in Equillium during the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Virtu Financial LLC raised its holdings in Equillium by 133.4% during the third quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 23,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 13,591 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC bought a new stake in Equillium during the third quarter valued at about $35,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new stake in Equillium during the third quarter valued at about $99,000. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp bought a new stake in Equillium during the first quarter valued at about $100,000. 27.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on EQ. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $7.00 price target on shares of Equillium in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of Equillium in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Equillium in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $5.00 target price on Equillium in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Leerink Partners raised Equillium from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $1.00 to $6.00 in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.57.

Equillium Company Profile

Equillium, Inc (NASDAQ: EQ) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel immunotherapies to treat severe autoimmune diseases and prevent organ transplant rejection. The company’s lead therapeutic candidate, EQ001 (itolizumab), is a humanized monoclonal antibody that modulates T-cell activation by targeting the CD6 receptor. Equillium’s pipeline also includes additional biologic candidates aimed at addressing indications such as acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and lupus nephritis.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in La Jolla, California, Equillium in-licensed itolizumab from Biocon Limited, leveraging the antibody’s established safety profile in earlier clinical studies.