Capricor Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CAPR) Rating Increased to Buy at B. Riley Financial

Capricor Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CAPR) was upgraded by B. Riley Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday, Briefing.com reports. The firm presently has a $21.00 price objective on the biotechnology company’s stock. B. Riley Financial’s target price indicates a potential upside of 150.90% from the company’s current price.

CAPR has been the topic of several other reports. Wall Street Zen lowered Capricor Therapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Capricor Therapeutics in a report on Friday. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered Capricor Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Capricor Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Capricor Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.25.

Capricor Therapeutics Stock Performance

CAPR stock opened at $8.37 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.18. Capricor Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $2.96 and a 52 week high of $40.37. The stock has a market cap of $486.63 million, a P/E ratio of -3.42 and a beta of 0.72.

Capricor Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CAPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 13th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.70) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.59) by ($0.11). Sell-side analysts predict that Capricor Therapeutics will post -1.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Capricor Therapeutics

In related news, CFO Anthony Bergmann sold 24,100 shares of Capricor Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.38, for a total transaction of $732,158.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 11,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $340,954.74. This trade represents a 68.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $759,158 in the last three months. 9.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Capricor Therapeutics

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CAPR. Squarepoint Ops LLC lifted its position in Capricor Therapeutics by 57.8% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 19,731 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $475,000 after purchasing an additional 7,231 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Capricor Therapeutics by 2,261.8% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,528,478 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $36,806,000 after acquiring an additional 1,463,762 shares during the period. Montanova Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Capricor Therapeutics by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter. Montanova Capital LLC now owns 4,092,784 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $98,554,000 after acquiring an additional 274,184 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Capricor Therapeutics in the second quarter worth about $3,895,000. Finally, Glenmede Trust Co. NA boosted its holdings in Capricor Therapeutics by 13.2% during the first quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 36,330 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,104,000 after purchasing an additional 4,240 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.68% of the company’s stock.

Capricor Therapeutics Company Profile

Capricor Therapeutics, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on developing cell- and exosome-based therapies for serious diseases. The company’s programs are designed to use regenerative medicine and targeted delivery technologies to address conditions with limited treatment options.

Its leading therapeutic candidate is deramiocel, also known as CAP-1002, an allogeneic cell therapy derived from cardiosphere-derived cells. The program has been studied primarily for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness and cardiac complications.