Equillium, Inc. $EQ Holdings Lifted by Janus Henderson Group PLC

Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Equillium, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQ) by 10.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,494,571 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 632,359 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC owned approximately 10.27% of Equillium worth $12,957,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of EQ. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Equillium by 59.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,313,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,879,000 after acquiring an additional 489,855 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP purchased a new position in Equillium during the 3rd quarter valued at about $190,000. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equillium in the 3rd quarter valued at about $7,951,000. Virtu Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Equillium by 133.4% in the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 23,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 13,591 shares during the period. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Equillium in the third quarter worth approximately $178,000. 27.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EQ has been the subject of several research reports. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of Equillium from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $1.00 to $6.00 in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $5.00 price objective on shares of Equillium in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. B. Riley Financial initiated coverage on shares of Equillium in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $6.00 target price for the company. Zacks Research cut shares of Equillium from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of Equillium in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.57.

Insider Transactions at Equillium

In other news, insider Penny Tom sold 65,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.95, for a total transaction of $191,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 65,000 shares in the company, valued at $191,750. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Stephen Connelly sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 owned 793,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,505,880. This represents a 20.14% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 406,392 shares of company stock worth $1,224,898 in the last 90 days. 17.84% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Equillium Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EQ opened at $2.26 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $2.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $2.18. Equillium, Inc. has a 52 week low of $0.46 and a 52 week high of $3.54. The stock has a market cap of $142.90 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.06 and a beta of 1.82.

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

Equillium 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.